Being 14 is Tough
by BrightBlueConverse
Summary: A 14 year old's life is hard. A 14 year old son of Hades' life is harder. Nico di Angelo has killed monsters, fought in a war, and communicated with the dead, but he's on a whole new adventure now: Becoming a teenager. R&R Constructive critism is welcome
1. Headon Collisions

**Hey everyone! This is a new story, and no, it's not my first, but it is my first PJO story. I'm going to try not to make any characters OOC or any new ones Mary Sues, and if I make any mistakes, don't hesitate to tell me with ****constructive criticism. ****Notice I underlined 'constructive criticism', so please don't leave flames for stupid mistakes. If you think my story sucks, don't tell me like this:**

"**WHAT THE H3LL IS WRONG WITH YOU!? WHY ON EARTH WOULD U POST THIS PIECE OF CRP!?!? IT'S HORRIBLE!!"**

**Instead, try:**

"**Not my favorite story. Maybe you should get a beta or look over your chapters a couple more times before posting them."**

**See? Much better(:**

**I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, that goes to Rick Riordan. **

*******

Some things give you more experience then you could ever get training and working in a class.

One of those things is fighting in a war against the Titan Lord with hundreds of other demi-gods, in a city where all of the humans are solidly unconscious.

Needless to say, camp hasn't been that exciting after the war. Percy and Annabeth have been going out, and honestly, it's revolting. More campers have been coming in and getting claimed, which just means more people to stare at me, the son of Hades, like I have two heads. Hello? Did they forget how much **I** helped out in that war? I would have _loved_ to see them win without Hades on their side.

Personally, I would love to grab my sword and a change of clothes and ditch this camp. You know what? Forget the change of clothes, I would manage. In case you don't know, I'm not much of a people person. And being around all these happy, go-lucky campers 24/7 makes me want to rip my hair out. I have actually, but it hurts like Hades, so I stopped. I'm not really into self-inflected pain. But last summer I promised Percy I would stay at camp, for my safety, and train here with the other half-bloods. So looks like I'm stuck here at Camp Go-Lucky. Whoop-di-do.

Back to Percy and Annabeth. Since the war last summer, it's like they're connected at the hip. They train together, they talk together, they swim together, they do _everything _together. And as I said before, it's revolting. But apparently, they're in 'love', so I just have to let it be. At least, that's what Chiron said. Let me tell you something about 'love'. It's stupid, it's pointless, and as stated above, I'm not into self-inflected pain, which I think defines love pretty well. Yes, most **normal** guys my age drool over girls every day, and are considered losers if they don't have a girlfriend. The key word in that sentence is **normal,** which I am not. So needless to say, I don't have a girlfriend. Nor am I interested in anyway of getting one.

I'll admit it, I like _looking_ at girls. Preferably hot ones. But really, can you blame me? I'm a 14 year old guy, don't forget that. All 14 year old guys like looking at hot girls, it's a scientific fact. Well, I'm sure if they tested it, it **would **be a scientific fact. And this camp? Well, it has some pretty hot girls. Mostly in the Aphrodite department. Boy are they a sight for sore eyes. But really, most of them are a bunch of stuck-up snobs, and I don't particularly like snobs, so I tend to stay away from them. Some of the Athena and Apollo girls are pretty good-looking, but I knew if I looked at them wrong they would have no problem finding an older sibling to kick my a-

"Hey, Nico" Percy greeted me, interrupting my thoughts. As usual, his fingers were intertwined with Annabeth's. He sat on the ground next to me, where I was leaning against a tree trunk, trying to find shade on this particularly hot day. I'm sure it didn't help that I was wearing black jeans, sneakers, and a red t-shirt, oh well.

"Hey. Can you go get me a water bottle? It's friggen hot out." Indeed it was. And my mouth felt like someone poured sand in it, and that wasn't a pleasant feeling. Not. At. All.

"Why would I go out of my way to get you a water bottle, when I can just do this?" _Ah, crap_.

Sure enough, within seconds I was dripping wet with ice water, goose bumps already starting up my arms. My soaking wet hair flopped over my face, and took several times running my hand through it to keep it out of my eyes. Once I could see, I gave my best death glare to Percy, but I don't think it was very successful since a second later my hair fell back onto my face. Annabeth smacked Percy on the arm with her free hand, but he was too busy laughing to notice. After using some not-so-nice words involving my very colorful vocabulary, I stalked off towards my cabin to change my clothes.

"Damn water powers, damn son of Poseidon, damn invulnerability, damn Percy" I mumbled to myself, looking at my feet as I walked. Sure, he was my best friend. Sure, he was my cousin. But right now I wanted to kill him. You would too, having ice cold water soaking your socks and trudging across camp isn't exactly fun.

So as I sulked and wondered across camp, I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings. That's why I spazzed quite a bit when me and my dripping-wet self bumped into something hard, which turned out to be somebody's head. Ouch. "Crap!" we said simultaneously while falling back. From the voice, I'm guessing the other person was either

A girl

A guy with an unusually high-pitched voice

Turned out to be the first one, I discovered when I looked up. She, like myself, was rubbing her head and sitting on the ground after the head-on collision (literally). She looked up at me, than informed me that I had a hard head.

"So I've been told" I remarked back. First thing I noticed about her was her eyes. They were gray, just like Annabeth's. But this girl had a bit more blue in hers, so they were that color the sky turns right after a thunderstorm. She had long wavy blonde hair, that reached her mid-back, and olive skin, not unlike my own. She was wearing a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, like everybody else, and denim shorts that I have no doubt were skinny jeans until she cut them at the knee. She had worn-out gray converse with rainbow laces, and doodles with different colored sharpies all over the rubber. Being the 14 year old gentleman I am, I stood up and extended my hand for her. She grabbed it and I pulled her up.

"Thanks" she mumbled, more to herself then me. I wiped my hands on my jeans. Not to sound cliché or pathetic or anything, but I wasn't used to being so close to a girl and my hormones were acting up. Curse puberty… After straightening her hair out and wiping the dirt off her legs, she held out her hand to me.

"Jillian Mistero, daughter of Athena. But my friends call me Jill." I shook her hand, and prayed to every god and goddess I could think of that she didn't notice the sweat. If she did, she didn't show it.

"Nico di Angelo, son of Hades." I let go of her hand, and wiped my own on my jeans again. She looked over me with a strange look.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, well actually I don't really care if you mind, but why the **Hades **did you decide to go swimming with your clothes on?" she asked. Hm, she seemed so polite. Ah well. Two can play the wonderful game of rudeness.

"I hope you don't mind me saying, well actually I don't really care if you mind, but it's none of your business." I answered her with a smirk on my face. Jill returned one and raised an eyebrow. I looked at her. She was pretty good looking, but I didn't stare, because I knew Malcom threw a mean punch. But Annabeth would probably kill me before Malcom had the chance. Jill opened her mouth to say something, but Percy beat her to it.

"I like the new look, Nico! Wet dog really works for you!" he burst into another fit of laughter while I rolled my eyes. In the meanwhile, Annabeth disconnected herself from Percy and walked over towards us. She stood next to Jillian.

"I see you two met?" Standing next to each other, Annabeth and Jill looked freaky-similar. But then again, most kids from the same cabin had similar features. Jill and I nodded.

"Through accidental events, yes, Nico and I have met. And I have the bump on my head to prove it." She said while rubbing her head. Annabeth raised an eyebrow, just like Jill had done moments before. Jeez, are their brains wired the same way or something?

"Ha ha, so funny." I said sarcastically. "Well, in case none of you have noticed-", I gestured to my hair and outfit, "-I'm soaking wet, thanks to a Mr. Jackson (at this he started laughing again; is it really that funny?) So I'm gonna go change and maybe summon some dead guys to attack Percy. All depends on my mood. See ya later." I saluted them in a mocking matter and headed off to my cabin, which was recently built.

The Hades Cabin was black, blacker than night. Annabeth designed it, and I have to say, she did a pretty good job. She had workers carve scenes from the Underworld into the outside walls, and they were shockingly accurate. There were pictures of Hades, some of the River Styx, and even one of Ceberus chewing a bouncy ball, and I'm honestly not sure why _that_ was there. On the inside there were 8 single beds, all with black silk sheets and comforters. I tried to convince Chiron to let me have a summoning ditch, but apparently summoning dead people was "against camp rules", so he forbid it. What's the fun of being a child of Hades if you don't have your own summoning ditch? Well, I do actually have a summoning ditch, but it's all the way out on the woods, and I'm much too lazy to go all the way out there.

When I entered my cabin I immediately got out of my wet clothes that were sticking to my skin (especially my jeans, blech) and put on dry ones instead. In the corner of the cabin there's a mini refrigerator filled with soda and junk food for whenever I **do** summon. I grabbed a Coke and popped it open (Percy never got me my water bottle) and reclined back in a chair, enjoying the peace and quiet. It was nice and cool in my room, a lot better than the humid air outside. I planned on staying in there until dinner, than coming back straight after and hitting the hay. An ideal plan, eh? Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned.

*******

**Good? Bad? Absolutely horrible? Tell me in a review(: If I get some good reviews, I'll update soon.**


	2. Marshmallows and the Beatles

**Hey!! I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of reviews I got. But I just have oneee itsy-bitsy disappointment. A ****lot ****of people added this story to their favorites or story alerts, but only about a fourth of them also reviewed. It takes like 2 seconds! But I'm still glad you all liked it(: Hopefully this chapter will be as good?**

**Disclaimer: I don't PJO, but I do own a quesadilla! I'm eating it now :D**

Dinner at Camp Half-Blood is always the same. You go, you get food, you sacrifice some, you eat, then you leave. Sometimes a couple of campers will get claimed, and other times none will. I'm sure dinner is different from basically any other table. But I sit alone at the Hades table, and nobody bothers trying to talk to me, so you can imagine it gets quite boring. So instead of sitting there doing nothing and looking like a social reject (which I probably am…) sometimes I look around at the other campers, and see what they're up to.

Most of the Hermes campers are _actually_ kids of Hermes now, instead of all the un-claimed campers, thanks to Percy (who I shall now refer to as The Evil Water Bringer. Or maybe just TEWB. Ew, nevermind, I'll just stick to Percy). They're all huddling around the table and whispering to each other. I've learned it's best to stay away from them. Unfortunately, it took them stealing all of my Coke to learn that lesson. Then, over at the Demeter table, the campers are laughing and talking to each other, with their gardening gloves pushed to the sides of their plates. Two Ares campers are arm wrestling, and the rest are screaming and chanting them on, with food flying all around them. My eyes drift over to the Aphrodite table, where I see everybody eating salads with those annoying little tomatoes that look like weird red grapes. You know, the ones that you can never get on your fork, because they keep sliding away? Annoying, right? They're all talking and smiling, with a flip of the hair every once in a while. At the Athena table, Annabeth is cutting some little kid's meat, and I'm sure her own food is getting cold by now. Jill is sitting in between 2 other girls, which I've never met before, and I wonder how I've never noticed her before today. Looking around the table, it's not just Annabeth and Jill that look alike, the whole cabin look like one huge family (which I guess they are). For a second I wish that I had some siblings in the Hades cabin, and for a painful second, my thoughts go to my deceased sister, Bianca, but I put it to the back of my mind, trying to save myself from a bad mood.

Before I realize it, everybody's getting up and heading to the campfire. I stand up and start walking back to my cabin to finally get some sleep. Sure, all I did all day was sit around and drink some soda, but I felt like I just ran a marathon. Jeez, being me sure is exhausting. It must be because I'm so cool. Yeah… that's probably it.

So as I'm walking back I hear some Apollo camper humming "Here Comes the Sun", and now it's stuck in my head. Here comes the sun, doot n' dodo… It's just so annoyingly catchy. Blah. So then, subconsciously of course, I started humming the tune while walking. How can you not? Well, anyway, when I was almost at my cabin, my humming was rudely interrupted.

"Hmm… see, you didn't strike me as a Beatles guy. More like… All Time Low? Panic at the Disco? Maybe even Green Day. But Beatles? Nah." I turned around to look at whoever dared interrupt my glorious humming, to find a familiar looking daughter of Athena, and no, it wasn't Annabeth.

"Once again, you're so funny I can barely handle it. And for your information, I'm _not_ a Beatles guy. I heard somebody singing it, and it got stuck in my head. So shut up." Jill sped up so she was walking alongside me.

"You don't have to deny it Nico, it's kinda hard not to like the Beatles." I looked over and gave her a glare. Probably wasn't the nicest thing to do, but I'm probably not the nicest person. Oh well.

"Okay, okay, you don't like the Beatles. But care to explain why you're skipping out on the campfire?" she asked. "There will be marshmallowssss…."

"Sorry, I would rather get some sweet, sweet sleep than sit on a log with a bunch of screaming campers. So, I'll see you later."

"Fine, but you're the one missing out on the marshmallows. See ya." She started walking towards the other campers and I headed to my cabin, my search for sleep almost over.

I hate Percy. I hate him sooooo much. I want to push him into Tartarus and laugh at his pain. Ok, that's a bit extreme, but I seriously wanna punch him. For the second time that day, he interrupted my peace and quiet, by being annoying and obnoxious. So after collapsing in my bed, fully dressed and not bothering to put the comforters on, I was out cold. I was having this wonderful dream that they got a Taco Bell in the Underworld (if they did, screw my promise to Percy, I would move down there), when a certain son of Poseidon came into my room and violently woke me up. And yes, I count shaking me until I was ripped away from my dream violent.

"Nico, Nico, get up! GET UP!" he shouted like an inch away from my ear. Dude, do you not understand I'm sleeping? There are some basic rules to life:

1) Never call a girl fat. Even if they _are _fat. It's just wrong.

2) Never hurt a boy's ego. It won't end well.

3) Never, **ever**, wake up a teenager before 10 a.m. in the summer. You just _don't do it. _

"Go. Away." I managed to mumble out. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to get back to my dream, filled with assorted tacos and burritos, mmmm…

"Nico, if you don't get up right now, I'll flood your room with toilet water. And we both know I could very easily do that."

"Percy, if you don't leave me alone right now, I'll kill your pet hamster. And we both know I could very easily do that." Did Percy even have a pet hamster? No, no he didn't. Oh well, I was half-asleep, he shouldn't expect me to make any sense.

"Um… okay than… GET UP!!" Ever seen the movie Push(by the way, that's an awesome movie)? Well there are these guys, that scream like wicked loud, until everybody's ear drums burst, and Percy was **seriously** reminding me of them right now. I stuffed my head under a pillow and made a grunting noise. Can't he just leave me alone? It's like he's evil , evil I say!

When Percy _finally _got it through his thick head that I wasn't gonna get up, he took it to the next level and picked me up himself. Slung over his shoulder, I tried punching him to let me go, but no such luck. Stupid invulnerability… Soon we were walking into the Big House and I was most horribly humiliated, being carried by my big cousin. _And there was an Aphrodite girl there,_ he must hate me. So finally he dropped me, which wasn't much better, since hitting your head on a metal chair tends to hurt.

"Now, oh great one, what's so important that you had to tear me away from my bed, at," I checked the clock on the wall, "3:40 in the morning!? Do you not realize I need sleep?!?" I practically screamed at the guy. He didn't look phased.

"Nico, would you shut up for a minute and let Chiron explain? He called 2 people from each cabin, so you're kinda obliged to come." I looked around. Sure enough, there were 2 Ares campers, 2 Apollo campers, 2 Demeter campers, and so on. In the front of the room, Chiron stood in front of the campers and waited for everybody to shut up. Slowly the shouts turned into whispers, and the whispers stopped. Chiron began speaking.

"Campers, I apologize for disrupting you at this hour, but there is an urgency of this matter." At this, whispers broke out again, wondering what the urgency could be. Like said earlier, camp hasn't been exciting since the war was over. Campers thrived to hear thrilling news. Chiron cleared his voice, implying for everybody to shut their traps. "As I said, there is an urgent matter we came to discuss tonight. The Oracle has spoken to a camper, and it seems a quest is in order. Dear, can you come stand up here and recite what Rachel has told you?" he motioned to his right where there were some campers seated.

A familiar looking daughter of Athena stood up, clutching a half-eaten bag of marshmallows like it was her lifeline. And no, it wasn't Annabeth. _Crap._

***

**Let's see if I can get as many reviews as I got last chapter!(: If I do, I'll give you allllll a bite of my quesadillaaaa, tempting, eh? **

**PS- sorry if they don't have the movie Push in England or Canada or wherever else you are.**

**Another thing: I'm gonna be out all day tomorrow and Saturday I have play rehearsals, so I'll update ASAP! :D**


	3. Prophecies Suck

**Honestly, it's not the greatest chapter. I had to write it on loose-leaf paper during breaks at play practice (Alice in Wonderland, lol) and then copy it into my computer, so I apologize. Another thing is the prophecy. They're pretty tough to write, you have to basically summarize the whole story into a couple of lines, and it's tricky. Thank you all my wonderful reviewers!! Once again, I was pleasantly surprised with the amount I got. I think I replied to everybody who reviewed? Sorry if I missed you. Now on with the story!!**

**Disclaimer- I don't own PJO, and I don't own a quesadilla either, since I ate it…**

It took Jill a little while to compose herself enough to begin speaking. She was still clutching the marshmallows, and it's a pity, because she's smushing them all. Whoops, I should probably be paying more attention to what's going on than the smushed marshmallows. Blame my ADHD? Anyway, Chiron escorted her to where he was previously standing, in front of all the campers, and she looked like all she wanted to do was crawl under a rock and die. But I'm sure she wouldn't do that, because have you ever looked under a rock? Like a big one, big enough to die under? It's quite disgusting. It took her a bit to start speaking, and when she did, you could barely tell. She was just whispering to herself and looking at her feet. I felt horrible, what happened that was so bad? She didn't seem like the kind of girl who shrieked and nearly had a heart-attack at the sight of an itsy-bitsy spider. Oh, never mind, I take that back. All Athena children would do that at the sight of a spider. The Oracle talked to her, but it was Rachel, not that freaky old mummy person, so why was she so terrified?

"Excuse me, dear, why don't you tell everybody what happened?" Chiron said gently, breaking the silence and stopping the whispering. Jill took a large breath, like she was about to dive into a pool and swim a couple of laps. She took a small step forward, than began speaking.

"I was at the campfire, and then everybody left, but I, uh, forgot my marshmellows, so I went back to get them. And, uhm… the fire started, like, attacking, and stuff. And then all of these spiders-" she shivered, "they jumped out of the flames and they were biting me, and Chiron came and killed them, but then a message came out of the fire." Jill sounded like she was still confused about what happened, but it was urgent for her to get it all out. She reached into her pocket and took out a crumbled up piece of paper. I think half of the campers here are convinced she's gone mad, and honestly, I was believing that a bit too. Spiders jumped out of a fire and attacked her? Uh, ok. I looked at her. She didn't seem harmed or anything, her hair was a mess, but that was about it. But then I noticed that all over her, there were tiny slits, too thin for even the sharpest knife to make. Before I had time to think about it more, Chiron came up and stood next to the petrified Jill.

"Miss Mistero, why don't you read what's on the paper? I think the campers are confused."

"It says: ελάτε με συναντά αμέσως! Εάν αρνείστε θα υπάρξει πολύ χάος, για σας και τους φίλους σας" Jill recited in Greek. Some campers understood it perfectly, while others, such as myself, were more on the confused side.

Somebody to my left called out "Well? What the Hades does it mean?!" other campers nodded with agreement, while some rolled their eyes. Annabeth bravely stood up. I noticed she was also a bit shaken up.

"To all of you too oblivious to realize what this says, it means 'Come meet me immediately. If you refuse there will be much chaos, for you and your friends." Campers chatted with each other, excited with the news.

Rose Warner, from the Demeter cabin, asked loudly "Well who sent it?" I was wondering the same question. Who would've sent that message? Who was angered with Jill, or maybe the whole camp? Jill looked up at the audience.

"I have absolutely _no _idea. I'm clueless."

"Well that's a first." I heard somebody in the crowd whisper to their friend, which resulted in some quiet laughter. A girl from the Apollo cabin, Sam, hushed them and glared. Chiron looked troubled. He began speaking again.

"I think it's time to recite the prophecy that you've received." Jill looked even more troubled, but she bravely took another step toward the campers and started repeating the prophecy.

"Uhm… it went:

_You shall be tested harder than ever before, _

_And you will battle some for the last great war,_

_The one who called you shall be found, _

_With help from a deadly hound,_

_In this quest, you will take three, instead of two,_

_But be prepared, for death is before you,_

_You cannot come back with a group of four,_

_So one shall be lost to the ocean floor,_

_This will be a most difficult and challenging quest," _She suddenly stopped and found a sudden interest in her shoes. Jeez, what a suck-ish prophecy. Every line is a negative. Maybe the last one talks about how she's gonna ride a unicorn back to camp and then win the lottery. That would make up for the despair in the other lines. Campers were mumbling to each other about the prophecy, until Chiron interrupted them.

"Jillian? I don't think that was the last line. Please share the end with us."

Jill paused for a moment, looking like she was having an internal battle. For a split second she looked up at the crowd, just for a split second, but that was all I needed to know the last line was the grand finale to the prophecy. I can guarantee it had nothing to do with either unicorns or the lottery. Her gray eyes that seemed so vibrant and full of life, just this morning, were now dull and filled with tears yet to be released. Her face was pink and she had dried tear tracks leading down her face, from her swollen red eyes to her quivering.

"_And in the end you will sacrifice yourself, saving the rest." _With this, campers stopped talking all at once and all turned to stare at Jill. Annabeth stood up to comfort her little sister (well, half-sister) and Chiron put his hand on her shoulder. Sacrifice means dying, right? Like leaping in front of a gun because somebody was gonna shoot your brother? So… she's gonna die? I had just recently met her, but I sure didn't like the idea of her soul just drifting around the Underworld.

_And in the end you will sacrifice yourself to save the rest._

That last line just kept replaying in my head. Wow. That _seriously _sucks. I actually feel upset right now. Not mad upset, like I was the time somebody stole my sword and replaced it with a cheap plastic one from a prop store or something. I was genuinely upset, like legit sad. And I seriously did **not** like it.

"Well, who are you going to take? You get to pick 3 people this time." an Aphrodite girl called out. Jill looked torn. Then she looked at her half-sister, who was trying to comfort her and keep her calm instead of having an emotional breakdown.

"Annabeth? Will you come?" Annabeth smiled a bit and nodded, and then looked out into the crowd at Percy. He gave her a sad smile, and they locked glazes. Jill followed Annabeth's eyes over to Percy, and then realization hit her. I knew she was going to ask Percy to come too, for Annabeth's sake.

"Percy? Would you come?" Percy gave her a big grin and nodded, looking more like a bobble-head than a son of Poseidon. He walked up and stood next to Annabeth.

"Annddd…." Jill looked around the room, trying to pick out the last member of this quest. Her eyes stayed on a Hermes girl for a little while, but then continued drifting around. After a bit I stopped paying attention, until somebody started nudging my arm. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate it when people annoy me at 4 in the morning? No? Well, I hate It when people annoy me at 4 in the morning.

"What?!" I said to the so-called-nudger. It was a Hermes camper, I think his name was Geoff. I looked up. Why was everybody looking at me? Jill was biting her lip and staring at me.

"Nico?" she asked.

"Uh… yea?"

The next thing I knew, I was standing next to Percy, the final member of the quest.

Sigh, I guess I'm not going back to my Taco Bell dream tonight.

***

**In the newspaper today there was an article "What the hell? Trying to explain Hades' origins" heeheee…. I don't have another quesadilla to give you all, but I do haveeee…**

**CHINESE FOOD!!! YUMMY!! It's like international week. Mexican, Chinese, and I had Italian last night! Woah!**

**Anyway, reviewww!!!!!**


	4. Hot Dogs for Breakfast

**I'm so sorry!! I know I said that I'd update on Sunday or Monday, but it was pretty hectic and then I was out all of tonight, so I'm sincerely sorry :[ So this chapter prob isn't the greatest, but deal with me, please. I've been home like 5 hours (when I'm not sleeping of course) in the past 3 days, so I didn't exactly have time to work on this. But I'll ****try ****to have the next chapter up by the end of the week. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, but I own a pair of ripped jeans! But they make my knees cold..**

As predicted, I didn't get back to my Taco Bell dream. In fact, I didn't get to sleep at all. By the time I got back to my cabin, there was only an hour until our departure time, _at 6 in the freakin morning. _Plus I had to pack, so I had about 10 minutes to lie down before my alarm clock (why did I even have one of those? I just unplug them or keep hitting snooze until I'm 20 minutes late for whatever I'm doing) went off and I was forced out of my nice, warm bed into the cold hands of reality. I grabbed my backpack and headed out of my cabin. One thing it's important to remember when you're constantly on the move is to pack light. I know, you're gonna be thinking "How can I possibly survive without my numerous hair products and globs of makeup that make me look like a pink raccoon?" well, you deal with it. Personally, I bring a change of clothes, my sword, a handful of drachmas and some human money. Anything else and I would be dragging my backpack around. Oh, and my iPod. How could I possibly live without my music? See, that's the thing, I wouldn't be able to.

I met Jill, Percy, and Annabeth at Thalia's pine tree. Since Percy had gotten his license, he was driving us instead of Argus. Unfortunately, they all looked well-rested, unlike myself. Well, besides Jill. But can you blame her? She just got a seriously sucky prophecy. Percy had his arm around Annabeth's waist, and she had hers on Percy's shoulders. They were leaning into a kiss, and I don't think they had acknowledged I was there yet. Jill was awkwardly looking away. When they're lips met, I oh-so-pleasantly interrupted them.

"Uh, I know you guys are 'lost in each other's eyes', but please be aware that you're in front of two 14 year old's eyes." I motioned to Jill and I. "So let's keep this PG, k?" Annabeth and Percy both looked up, Percy with a smirk on his face, and Annabeth's face bright red. She mumbled an apology and looked away.

"Sorry Nico, I guess you're just not at that stage yet, eh?" See, this got my face red. I wasn't blushing, guys don't blush. Ok, some do, but not me. I'm far too masculine for any of that girlie nonsense.

"So, you all ready?" Percy asked. He jingled the car keys for the camp's van. We nodded and we walked out of camp boundaries, our journey just beginning.

***

So four hours later, we had just reached the city. We were delayed by all the traffic on the expressway. Why was everybody up and driving at 6 in the morning on a Tuesday? I really do not know. Percy was driving, so of course, Annabeth got shotgun. This left Jill and me together, awkwardly, in the back seat. Since the prophecy said somebody would "be lost to the ocean's floor", we decided to go inland, and then decide on what to do. It's not like we were on a time limit or anything, so we weren't planning on rushing anything that didn't need to be rushed.

There was a **really **awkward silence, and we were stuck in the city's traffic. Last time I was here, every human was out cold and there was an army of monsters and demi-gods being led by an ancient evil Titan that was trying to destroy the gods. So you can't blame me for being prettybored this time around. Percy decided to break the silence.

"Soo… you guys hungry?" Now that he mentioned it, I hadn't eaten at all today, and I was up most of the night. I was starving. I looked over at Jill. She was looking down at her stomach, which I noticed was growling, and I bet she wished she hadn't smushed those marshmellows last night.

"Yea, you bring any food?" Maybe he had cheese doodles… mmm… cheese doodles…

"Yep! In my backpack. It's in the back." I looked behind me and spotted the familiar looking blue backpack. I grabbed it and opened it up, hoping to see the bright orange bag which contains delicious cheesy snacks, but no such luck. Instead, there was a box of granola bars. Eh, I would deal with it. They had chocolate in them, chocolate is just as good as cheese. I stuck my hand inside and searched around a little. Where was the granola bars? I turned the box upside down, and whatever was in there fall out. Turns out the only thing that was in there were 10 granola bar _wrappers. _Wrappers!

"Uh, hate to break it to you, Percy, but we're not satyrs, we don't eat wrappers." Jill remarked, just as disappointed at the lack of granola bars as I was.

"Uhm, people usually don't eat the wrappers, Jill. Just eat the granola bar _inside _the wrapper…" then he mumbled something about how he thought children of Athena were supposed to be smart.

"Hate to break it to you, but there are no granola bars! There's just a bunch of the wrappers."

Percy looked into the backseat at the empty box. A puzzled look came across his face, but was soon replaced with a knowing one. "Oh… yea, I, uh, kinda ate all of those last week… sorry… Does anybody else have anything?" We all shook our heads. My stomach growled.

"Is there a McDonalds anywhere around here?" Annabeth asked. They were probably still serving breakfast, and they have the best pancakes. Not as good as cheese, or chocolate, but still pretty delicious. I looked around. Nope. Not a big yellow 'M' in sight.

"Nope. Not as far as I can see. Anybody else see one?" Jill asked.

"Nah. Oh! There's a hotdog stand at the corner!" I said. Mmm… hot dogs.

"Oo! Oo! I want mine with mustard!" Percy decided to share with us. Mustard? Ew. I wanted mine with ketchup. Annabeth and Jill both stared at us with a disgusted look.

"You guys are seriously gonna eat hotdogs? At 10 in the morning? From a stand? On a street corner? In New York City?" They shared a look, "Ewwww."

"And you're not? Eh, suit yourselves. You'll be the ones starving, not us." So Percy pulled to the side of the road and I got out of the car with $10 and approached the cart. The man working it was wearing a backwards Mets cap and a stained white shirt, rolled up to his elbows.

"HOT DOGS! HOT DOGS! WE'VE GOT FRESH HOT DOGS!" he was calling out. Fresh? Yeah, okay. I came up to him.

"Hey, 2 hot dogs: one with mustard and one with ketchup." Almost immediately, the man was handing me two greasy breakfasts me and my dear cousin we about to eat.

"That'll be 5 bucks, kiddo." Kiddo?! I was taller than him! People really annoyed me… I slapped the money into his hand and headed back to the car, my hands full of fattening deliciousness. When I got to the car, Percy was drumming his hands on the steering wheel and bobbing his head. Wow Percy, just wow. Jill and Annabeth were talking about the pros and cons of America's battle strategies in the Battle of Gettysburg, which sounded horribly boring. They quieted down when I entered the car. Percy stopped his strange form of dancing and welcomed me.

"Hey! You got breakfast!" he grabbed his mustardy hotdog and had stuffed it in his mouth before I had the time to even get seated. Once he had got it down his throat, he took the car out of park and drove right back into traffic. 2 bites into my delicious and nutritious (ok, it's at all nutritious, but it rhymed! You can't resist rhymes) breakfast, I felt somebody's eyes on me, so I turned to my right. Jill was staring at me with her mouth slightly opened, and her face in a desperate expression. First I was embarrassed, so my face reddened and I looked away, but then I realized she was looking at my hotdog, not me.

"Er… can I help you?" I asked. She snapped back into reality and closed her mouth.

"Uh, no, sorry. I didn't realize I was staring." She replied. I smirked and took another bite of my hotdog, and she got the same expression. Ohhhh…. I get it….. Damn. No fair, this is _my _hotdog. She said she didn't want one! I sighed.

"Do you want it?" I moved the hotdog over to her. She looked surprised, but then put her hand up, showing she didn't. Psshhh, she was practically drooling over it. So I did the gentleman-ish thing to do, I took another big bite and gave her my breakfast hotdog. She smiled at me.

"Thanks." Then she scarfed it down in a couple of bites. That was my hotdog… Sigh, I guess that's the price to pay for being such a wonderful person.

"Soooo… where are we even going? Pennsylvania? " I asked. I hope we weren't going to Maryland. I don't like Maryland. How come Mary has her own land? Why can't it be Nicoland?

"Nah. I think we're gonna go to Virginia. No! We're too cool for Virginia. We'll go to _West _Virginia. Yeah, that's much better." There's a West Virginia? Really? Hm… Is there an East Virginia too?

Jill gave him an odd look. "Okayyy…." She said, stretching out the letters. "It'll take us, like, 5 or 6 hours to get there, if not more, so I guess we'll just decide on the next move when we get there?" Annabeth nodded, showing she approved of the plan. And so, I did one of my favorite things: I put in my iPod and feel asleep. For 7 hours.

***

So I was having this weird dream that I was eating chocolate-covered celery, when Johnny Depp came and told me that he was my godfather. And then Minnie Mouse came, and did a weird little dance, and then started talking to me.

"Nico? Nicccooooo? Anybody homeee?" Duh Minnie, I'm right here. "Is he always this hard to wake up?" Wake up? Huh? Ohhhh, I get it. I'm dreaming…

"Yep! This is usually when I threat him with toilet water." Percy? Ew. Get out of my dream.

"Go. Away." I managed to get out. Minnie Mouse smiled,

"He lives!" she shouted. Ha ha, so funny. Mmmm…. It smelt like cheeseburgers. Cheese and meat. Together. What a wonderful creation. Now somebody was shaking my arm.

"C'mon, get up. We're here." Here? Where's 'here'? Ohhh… West Virginia… "We saved you a cheeseburger, but if you want to sleep instead, than I'm sure Percy won't mind eating it." Nu-uh, not gonna happen. So I reached out and grabbed the burger right out of her hand. Yes, my eyes were closed. And yes, I am a ninja.

"Holy shhh---ugar!" exclaimed Minnie Mouse, I mean Jill… I opened my eyes and took a bite out of the burger and swallowed it.

"Holy sugar? Are you 7 or something?" I asked her.

"Cursing is a bad influence. Anyway, how the hell did you do that?!"

"I thought you _just_ said cursing was a bad influence…" Was she mental? Or maybe she just had short-term memory loss…

"What? Oh, hell isn't a curse, you retard. It's a location, duh." Uh, no. "Ugh, it doesn't even matter. You need to go with Percy and get some firewood."

"Firewood? Where am I supposed to get firewood?" Oh it's no problem, I'll just call

"Uh, in case you haven't noticed, we're surrounded by firewood." She pointed out a window, to show a forest. How the hell did we end up in a forest? Why do I always miss important things when I'm sleeping? These are all good questions…

And so I set off to get firewood with Percy. But we barely got 20 feet away when we started hearing whispering.

***

**Once again, sorry!! I know that probably sucked. Like horribly. But forgive me? I have cookiessss, they're chocolate chippppp. If you review, you can have oneee! Yayyyy!**


	5. Greek Ninjas

**Hola mis amigo/as! How ya doin'? Good I hope? Well I finished it on Friday and tried to post it, but it wouldn't let me… And then I tried again, and then on Saturday, and on Sunday, and on Monday, it just wouldn't work :( Fanfiction hates meeee, oh well. **

**Plus, now that I'm back at school it's harder to time find to write. Anddd…. I'm going on vacation!! YAY!! Thursdayyyy! I can finally get a tan… My pale-ness is most horrible at this time of the year. I get back next week, so I'll start the next chapter and post it when I get back(:**

*******

We took fighting stances immediately, it was instinctive for us. Percy grabbed his pen from his pocket, and turned it into his always trusty sword. Luckily, I had my sword on me, since that was what I was planning on using to cut up the wood. I got into a defensive position and stayed still. Percy and I didn't move a muscle, nor did we speak. I don't know how long we just stood there, but it was long enough for my arms to get tired of their current position and threaten to drop to my sides, but I kept them up. After what seemed like forever, I heard footsteps behind me.

Finally with something to do, I pivoted around, too fast for the other person to act. Extending the arm that held my sword to its full length, I touched the tip of the blade to the person's chest. They took a small intake of breath, in surprise. I looked at the face that used to be shocked, but now just looked pissed. Whoops, it was just Jill…

"What the h-" she began, but I cut her off by holding my hand over her mouth. After a minute I took away my hand, but signaled her to shut up. She nodded, and quietly made her way back to the car, returning a moment later with her sword and Annabeth. They both quickly got into the same positions as Percy and I. Wow, I was gonna feel _really _stupid if it just ended up being a squirrel or something in the bushes.

I could tell Percy was getting bored too. We all have ADHD, so standing around with our swords, just waiting for something to happen, isn't exactly our favorite thing to do. Annabeth looked like she was trying to resist shuffling her feet, and Jill had started tapping her fingers the grip of her sword. Finally, Percy called out,

"Hey! Who's there?"

He was answered by shuffling in the trees, and like they came from nowhere, 4 teens dropped from the trees. We all took a step back in surprise. I thought they were gonna come from _behind _the trees, not _in _them. I looked over them, analyzing each person.

There was a boy that looked about 16 or 17, holding a dagger to his side. He had short spiky brown hair, with really dark brown eyes. Next to him was a girl, that looked just a bit younger. Maybe 15. She had the same hair color as him, but hers was long and wavy, tied in a braid that reached her waist. There was a bow in her hand and a pouch filled with arrows slung over her shoulder. Then, there were two kids, one boy and one girl, about my age from their looks, both with swords. They all looked similar, so I was guessing they were related. The oldest one in their group singled out Percy, addressing him as the leader.

"Who are you? A couple of more demigods?" he asked. We all exchanged looks. Well obviously if they knew what demigods were, they must be half-bloods themselves. Percy looked like he was having trouble deciding on how to answer, so Annabeth did it for him.

"Yeah. Are you all on your way to Camp Half-Blood? Because you're heading in the wrong direction." She asked, with a hint of suspicion in her voice.

Then the other group all exchanged looks, and one of the boys my age answered. "No, we haven't been to camp since the last war." At this, Percy and Annabeth analyzed them, trying to see if they looked familiar. Percy spoke first.

"That's weird; you don't look familiar at all. What station were you fighting at?" he asked.

They all shared a humorous look, than gave a small laugh. The girl with the braid smiled as she answered. "No, I think you've all gotten it wrong. We weren't fighting on the same side." And at this, she charged. Oh sugar.

***

Really, this was an interesting fight. Everybody was paired against somebody about their age and their gender. Percy took on the oldest one, of course, and their fight looked the most aggressive. The oldest from the group, with the spiky hair, was bearing his teeth and actually _snarling _at Percy. Snarling. That's just weird.

The girl who charged first was against Annabeth. Turns out she didn't just have an archery set, she had pulled out a blade from her pocket. Her braid was flying around her face, but it was better than Annabeth's loose hair whipping around. Annabeth has always been more of an offense fighter, but so was this other girl, so they were both throwing moves out every minute. Annabeth already had a gash on her arm, and the braid girl was bleeding from her cheek.

Jill obviously took on the girl her age, and they were on a pretty equal level. The girl would throw a move and Jill would block, than Jill would throw a move and the girl would block, but so far neither of them were injured. The girl had a wicked glint in her eye, and for a second even I, Nico di Angelo, got the chills from her, which itself is freaky.

Me? I got the boy my age, who happened to be taller than me. Blah. His sword was longer than mine, but I had a lot better control of mine. My fighting mode instinctively kicked in, and after a while I didn't even have to think about my moves, they just happened. He would stab, I would duck. He sliced, I parried. Once I got into it, I started going more offense than defense, which landed me a nice cut on my stomach. Ow. But I returned the favor, and soon the boy had a pretty decent gash on his leg.

The first fight that ended was Annabeth and the braid girl. Annabeth hit her with the butt of her dagger, and she was out cold. Next was Percy and the guy with spiky hair. Percy splashed him in the face with water, and while the guy was still dazed, Percy took his move. So that just left me and Jill fighting.

Annabeth was up in the trees, looking for the other group's supplies. Hopefully, they would have food and drachmas. While Percy was back in the car, getting _our_ supplies ready to treat our injuries.

This fight between me and the guy was getting quite boring. So finally, I decided to copy Annabeth. I turned my sword around and jammed the guy in the nose 3 times with the end. The _crack _of bone breaking made me cringe a little bit. Now it was just Jill against that girl.

At first I thought Jill was just blocking every move and waiting for the other girl to get tired. Or maybe she was hurt and she couldn't fight well. When the girl lunged, she ducked. When the girl stabbed, she rolled. Which was strange, because before she was just as much offense as defense. But then I realized that she was playing a strategy; when the girl couldn't hit her, she got mad. When you get mad, you're letting your anger take over you, which ends up with you fighting horribly, which the girl was doing. She was acting sloppy and un-coordinated. She had even tripped over her own feet a couple of times.

I thought this was actually a pretty good plan, because now the girl will probably either get to tired and collapse, or Jill can come in and make her move. But unfortunately, the girl got a bit too mad. She stabbed, and when Jill ducked, she grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back up. Surprised, Jill dropped her sword, and began struggling to get out of the girl's grip. No such luck. The girl brought her sword up to Jill's throat, and threatened her not to move.

So what did Jill do, dangling in mid-air, weaponless, with a blade at her throat? What anybody would do, of course. She brought up her hand, and punched the girl in the face. I heard the crack 20 feet away.

She dropped her and stepped back, holding her nose.

"Ouch! You little brat!" she screamed, her voice muffled by her hands covering her mouth. She wiped the blood from her face, or attempted to, because it just smeared all over and looked mighty gross. Jill got up and rubbed the top of her head, where her hair was nearly yanked out. I would step in, I had my sword and everything, but I was really looking forward to seeing what Jill was gonna do next. Plus, I was kinda in shock of what was going on. _That was some punch…_

I'm glad I didn't interfere, because when the girl charged back at Jill, she did the coolest thing _ever__._ Just when the girl got about a meter away, Jill pivoted so she was facing sideways, then lifted her leg and kicked the girl in the chest, pushing her away and down onto her back. She was like a Greek ninja. Do they have ninjas in Greece? No, I don't think they do. Oh well, this is my mind, and in my mind there are Greek ninjas.

When the girl was regaining her breath, and reaching a hand out for her sword, Jill came back to her and elbowed her in the face, until the girl was spitting out blood. It was gross, but really cool. Soon the girl wasn't trying to get back up, and Jill looked totally and completely worn out.

The whole time, my feet were cemented to the ground, and my mouth was parted in surprise. Jill wiped sweat from her forehead, and sat down against a tree. She was breathing really heavily, and for the first time I noticed she had a couple of slashes on her legs, and one big one on her stomach. I had my fair share of cuts too, and so did Annabeth. Of course, Percy was totally fine, thanks to his invulnerability.

Suddenly Annabeth jumped out of a tree and shook me from my thoughts. She was holding a backpack at an arm's length and walking back to the car.

"Everybody okay?" she asked. I nodded. My cuts weren't bad, some ambrosia would fix them right up. Mostly, I was just tired. But I didn't know about Jill. I'm pretty sure she fell asleep leaning against that tree. I went over to check on her. Annabeth trailed behind me.

"What happened to Jill? Is she hurt?" she asked, panicked. Jill was her little sister, after all.

"I think she's fine. Do you know if she took karate?" I asked her. That would explain how she knew how to fight, sword-less. Annabeth gave me a weird look, and shook her head. I shrugged, and looked to see if Jill was awake. I shook her. Turns out she wasn't.

Apparently, when a girl goes unconscious right after a big fight with evil demigods, the big sister tends to worry. And that big sister is Annabeth. And she's having a heart attack.

"Well, what happened!? Why is she sleeping?! Is she okay?!" she bombarded me with questions. I shrugged. How should I know?

I started shaking Jill, trying to wake her up.

"Jill? Jillllll? Wake up!" I said as I shook her. Annabeth pushed me out of the way and tried it herself.

"Jill! JILL! Can you hear me?" she nearly screamed. Nothing. No movement whatsoever.

Uh-oh…

*******

**Didja like it? Were you disappointed at my horrid fighting-writing (heh, that rhymed)? Why don't cha tell me in a review? (: **

**I don't have any food to offer you, but I just got a bunch of chef's hats for like a $, so you guys can have one, if ya review(:**


	6. Rockabye Nico

**Bonjour! Yayy I'm back from the dead!! Just kidding, I'm back from Mexico. I got like the slightest tan ever. It's pretty tragic that the one time I go to Mexico it's cloudy. Oh well. Okay, now I can already predict people are gonna tell me Annabeth is OOC in this chapter, which I don't really think she is. But I'll explain at the end. **

**I don't own PJO, sadly :(**

*******

So finally,

2 hours later,

Jill regained consciousness.

Well, after having as much ambrosia stuffed down her throat as she possibly could, she woke up. We gave her some nectar too, but that was a bit harder, cause' she kept trying to gag it back up. Major gross-ness going on there.

Changing the topic from Jill's gagging reflexes, let's talk about what happened while she was out cold. It was honestly, truthfully, un-doubtfully, and completely the longest 2 hours of my _life. _

And yes, it was because suddenly I fell deeply in love with Jill, and not knowing when she was going to wake up, _if_ she would wake up, was driving me completely insane.

_Not._

Yeah, that thought just made me snort. No, it wasn't because my love for Jill was slowing down my sense of time, it was because _Annabeth_ was slowing down my sense of time. I don't think she shut up for a second. I swear, she sounded like a broken record,

"Is she gonna be okay? Is she gonna be okay? Is she gonna be okay?" Blah blah blah.

Gods, she was driving me over the edge of sanity. So, I did what anybody would have done; I hid in a tree with my iPod, and hoped I could stay up there until Jill woke up and Annabeth calmed down.

Unfortunately, I'm not known to have the best luck.

So, here I am, at the top of a tree, nodding my head to the beat of the wondrous music that flowed into my ears. Ain't I such a poet? Anyways, I completely blame Jill for the sudden start of disastrous events that happened in that tree. Let's explain, why don't we?

Did you ever listen to music and tune the rest of the world out? Well that's exactly what I was doing. Just chillen in a tree, hiding from my cousin's girlfriend, polishing my sword with a leaf every once in a while. Ya know, regular teenager stuff. Anyway, just as some FOB song ended, I heard Annabeth yelling from like 30 feet below,

"Nico? Are you up there!? Do you not realize we're in the middle of a crisis!? Get you lazy a*s down here!!" she screamed.

Eh, no thanks. I think I'll stay up here in my nice comfy tree. I un-paused the song and turned the music up louder, trying to drown out Annabeth's complaints. And yet, no matter how loud my music was, I could still hear her yelling. I thought that if I got a couple more feet up, her voice would fade out, so I stuffed my iPod in my pocket and started climbing the branches higher.

Regardless to how important it is for demigods, they don't have "Tree Climbing 101" class at Camp Half-Blood. Sure, they teach you how to kill a Cyclops. And they teach you how to ride a Pegasus. They even teach you how to climb a rock with hot lava spurting out of it. Like, seriously? When will I _ever _need to know how to do that?!

And yet, let's think about this scenario:

You're in the forest, just walking through, when suddenly you're surrounded by a pack of hellhounds. You have a sword, but it would be pointless trying to take on that many. Are you going to:

A) Find a rock with lava pouring down it, and use your expertise skills to climb it

B) Take out your magical Pegasus whistle to call one of the camp's Pegasus', and then ride it to safety

C) Find a Cyclops, trick it into killing the hellhounds, and then kill the Cyclops

D) CLIMB A FREAKIN TREE!

Unless you're stupider then a squirrel, you would realize the answer is D. And yet, we were never taught the basics of tree climbing.

So me, with my in-experienced knowledge of the art of climbing trees, stepped on a pretty sturdy looking branch. But unfortunately, its looks were deceiving. So you can't blame me for panicking when I heard the _crack _of the wood snap.

Rock-a-bye Nico,

On a treetop.

When the branch breaks,

Poor Nico will drop.

And of course, because I have the worst luck in the history of the world, I landed right in front of Annabeth. On my "lazy a*s".

"Ow…" I mumbled. "I think I just broke my butt."

"Oh shut it, Nico. Make yourself useful and go give my sister more ambrosia." She ordered.

"Ew no. What if she spews all over my hand?" Could you even imagine how gross that would be? I bet it would smell for like, 2 weeks.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and handed me the small plastic bag that held our supplies of the food of the gods. I grabbed it out of her hand, mumbling words not appropriate for children under the age of 12, and hoping Annabeth didn't hear me.

So now do you see? If Jill hadn't passed out, then Annabeth wouldn't be going mental. If Annabeth wasn't going mental, I wouldn't be annoyed with her. If I wasn't annoyed with her, I wouldn't have climbed a tree to get away. And if I didn't climb a tree to get away, I wouldn't have fallen and broke my butt. So, I blame it on Jill.

She was leaning against a tree, but not the same one as before. With 4 unconscious (and probably angry) demigods on the floor, we decided it would be smart to move away. Percy carried Jill, with Annabeth reminding him to be careful every five seconds, and rested her against the trunk of a tree. I sat down next to her and took out a small piece of the golden ambrosia.

I opened her mouth and prepared to stuff my hand with the ambrosia down her throat, when something grabbed my arm. I didn't scream, once again, I'm far too manly for any of that girlish nonsense. But I must admit, I did tense up and take an sharp intake of breath. I looked at the hand that was grabbing my arm, and saw Jill's familiar looking peace sign ring on the middle finger.

_Jill's _ring.

_Jill's _hand.

Ever see one of those really bad horror movies? Like, where somebody kills the monster/villain/murderer, and then is stupid enough _to go over and check if they're dead._ Then, surprise surprise, the 'dead' body reaches out and grabs the idiot victim. Well I felt just like that. As if that really fast music would be playing right now, and the audience would be screaming. She had a death grip on my arm, and yet she still had her eyes closed, and was sitting perfectly still. That is, until she started talking, of course.

"I swear, if you try to shove another piece of that down my throat, you'll wake up tomorrow to find a very angry Jill with a very large hammer prepared to smash your face in. Understand?"

Oh my gods. This girl is trying to give me a heart attack. I nodded meekly, which of course she didn't see, because her eyes were still closed. She harrumphed (that means to clear your throat like _Ahem!_, smart, aren't I?).

"Do. You. Understand?" she repeated, her voice threatening.

"Yeah…" I was trying to pry her fingers off of my arm, but she wasn't budging.

Jill smirked. "Good." Her hand withdrew back to her side, and her eyes opened.

"Now help me up! Have you no manners?" she asked, in a joking matter.

A little surprised at Jill's crazy mood swings, I stood up and helped her to her feet. Seeing Jill, Annabeth ran over and bombarded the poor (yet creepy) girl with questions.

"Are you okay? Does your head hurt? Do you need more nectar?" Jill shook her off lightly.

"No, I'm fine. Honest. My head's a-okay, and I most certainly do _not _need more nectar."

Annabeth didn't look convinced. She pestered her little sister some more, but then stopped asking questions and just stayed near her. Jill looked agitated, but didn't say anything else. Most clearly, she was fine. And yet Annabeth was always within 10 feet of her. Jeez, why do girls stress things so much?

In the meantime, Percy and I finally fulfilled our task of retrieving firewood. But it took us like, 3 hours. Apparently, it rained recently in the magical land of West Virginia, since almost every piece of wood was completely water logged. But it's ok, because looking for dry pieces of wood is #2 on my list of favorite things to do. Really, it's true! Wanna see it?

1) Donating food to the homeless

2) Looking for dry pieces of wood

3) Singing opera music with all my friends

4) Gardening

So, I'm hoping you caught on that that list is about as real as Santa Claus. Or Paris Hilton's boobs. Either one works.

Truthfully, it was super-duper boring. Like looking for a needle in a haystack. But my legs were tired. And my cousin kept trying to make conversation about the Yankees. Which would have been fine, but living on the run or in a camp where you swordfight for fun for the past couple of years kinda erased mortal sports from my mind. So I didn't really remember if baseball was the one where the guys run around a field and throw a ball to one another, or the one where the guys tackle each other and wear a ridiculous amount of padding and gear. Besides, I wasn't in the mood for talking. I just wanted to get the damn firewood and go to sleep.

And you probably have numerous questions right now, so let's answer them.

_Why do you need a fire? It's summer!_

Well, when you're deep in the woods at night, it tends to get a bit chilly. And dark. And us demigods don't really appreciate it when we can't see a single thing, so let's stick to a fire.

_If it's chilly, why don't you just sit in the car and turn on the heater?_

That would be a most excellent thing to do, really, it would. Except for the small detail that running a car's heater uses gas. And we only have a certain amount of gas. Buy more, you say? That's a good idea too. But gas is _so freakin expensive_. Like, why can't we just invent cars that run on useless things, like homework. That way, if you forget to do it and the teacher asks where it is, you can just say, "My dad had to use it to power the car on his way to work." See? It's a win-win situation.

So finally, we just ended up cutting the bar off of a tree, and carving out some of the inside, which was dry. We trudged back to the campsite with our arms full and our feet tired.

***

After a delicious meal of weenies roasted over the fire, we all resigned to sleep. All except Percy, who was on watch.

Annabeth was smart enough to bring a couple of thin blankets, which could be folded small enough to fit in her backpack without a problem. The girls shared one, and Percy and I were _supposed_ to share the other. But seriously, how awkward would that be? Two teenage boys, who happen to be cousins, sharing a blanket. Ew. So, I hogged it all myself. Percy be darned!

And so, as I lie there with my nice soft blanket, I think back on the day. Day 1 of the quest, and I've already traveled all day, fought a bunch of creepy half-bloods, witness Jill perform some pretty wicked moves, fallen out of a tree, and spent 3 hours looking for dry wood.

My life is pretty damn glamorous.

***

**Ok, let's go into why Annabeth wasn't OOC. We all know Annabeth's a bit controlling, right? Well if her little sister just passed out after a fight, dontcha think she would be some overprotective and demanding? Like, imagine if Percy was knocked out. She would have a mini heart attack. So say as you please, but I personally don't think shes OOC. **

**Sooo… why dontcha review? I think that's a jolly good ole' idea :D**


	7. The Secret Life of the American Demigod

**I run and then I hop, hop, hop. I wish that I could fly. There's danger if I dare to stop and here's a reason why!**

**He's over-due, he's in a rabbit stew. Can't even say "good-bye""hello", I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.**

**That's what I get for having a 4 hour Alice in Wonderland rehearsal today :P Anyways, just like the rabbit, I'm late. I'm late in posting this chapter, because I intended on posting it a while ago. Sorryyy :( But guess who's birthday is coming up in a matter of days! MINEE!! YAYYY!!! Okay. So nothing crazy and/or exciting happens in this chapter, I apologize greatly. If I added anything exciting in it, it would have taken me another 2 or 3 days to post it, so I'll put something exciting in the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or any of the characters, besides Jill. What upsets me is the fact that I don't own Nico. If I did, I would already be married by now(: **

*******

The next couple of days went by pretty quickly. Which is surprising, because they were _so incredibly boring._ We ate, we slept, and we traveled. Surviving on fast food (yummm) and trail mix, we successfully made it from Long Island to Nevada in just a few days. We stuck to our idea of traveling inland, and decided we would stay in good ole' Nevada until we make our next move.

Unfortunately, even with two Athena girls with us, we couldn't figure out some of the prophecy. The first line was obvious. _You shall be tested greater than ever before. _It's gonna be hard, as most quests are. That's to be 9th line said basically the same thing.

And the second line already happened. _And battle some from the last great war. _We battled the demigods, who fought on Krono's side in the war. Been there, done that.

The fourth line says we'll get help from a deadly hound, which we're assuming is a hellhound. How the Hades can we _possibly _get help from a hellhound, when all they want to do is rip our faces off? I have a feeling that parts not gonna be so easy.

We've already covered the fifth line, which just says Jill would pick 3 people instead of two. Easy peezy lemon squeezy.

…..

Alright, forget I just said that. Anyways, the rest just talks about darkness and despair and how people were gonna die and blah blah blah. I get the idea, no need to repeat it in like 7 different ways. Annabeth didn't agree with me. She said that "analyzing each individual line was very important in order to succeed in the quest". And so, we spent hours and hours going over the same lines. I slept through it most of the time.

The one thing we didn't get was who _the Hades sent the freakin letter. _Me, being the genius I am, had an incredible idea of who it was. Wanna know? Of course you do! Well, I've concluded, that all the evidence says, that obviously, the person who is responsible for all the bad things that's been happening to us lately, clearly is,

Justin Bieber.

Come on! Obviously, he was mad at society and all the girls obsessed with him so he's intending on scaring every girl in America out of their right minds. That way they'll all hate him and stop being _so freakin in love _with him. Maybe they'll even get a life, and leave him alone. Unfortunately for Jill, she was his first victim.

Okay, even if he _didn't _do it, we can still attack him, right? It's a win-win situation. I get to beat up Justin Bieber and… I get to beat up Justin Bieber. See? Win-win.

Another problem was Jill. It seemed like when she wasn't angry, she was crabby. Snapping at people, yelling, etc. And when she wasn't crabby, she was sulking. Randomly crying, sleeping constantly, and looking depressed. And when she wasn't sulking, she was fighting with Annabeth about something beyond stupid. Bipolar much? And it had just started happening the second day of the trip. Maybe she was suffering from some fatal disease and we needed to send her back to camp. Anything to get me away from those 24/7 mood swings.

And yet the weird thing is, Annabeth didn't seem to mind. She would comfort her, ignore her when she wanted to be left alone, and try to drop the argument when they were fighting. And Annabeth is _not _the cuddly motherly type. Even Percy wasn't freaking out, like he would have if _I_ was the one having mood swings. Glorious. My own cousin loves Jill more than he loves me. Ah, the story of my life.

And so after multiple days of sucky-ness and sleeping in the woods, cramped with 3 other people, you couldn't imagine how happy I was to hear that we were _finally _staying in a motel. A motel! With rooms, and beds, and indoor plumbing! Ah, the good life…

Okay, with our money, we could only afford the cheapest motel we could find. Which, coincidently, was titled Cheap Charlie's Motel. Wow. How horribly unoriginal. So even in Cheap Charlie's Motel, (which, by the way, looked like it would be a better living environment for rats, as oppose to humans) we could only afford one room with 2 beds and a loveseat. And just putting it out there, 'loveseat' is a stupid name for a piece of furniture. Girls on the beds, one guy on the _loveseat, _and the other on the floor. The horribly bug infested floor. Mental note: get to couch before Percy, unless you want your hair to be a roach's new home.

When we walked into the room, my first thought was "The health inspector must have been blind", and I'm probably right. There's no _way_ this place is fit for humans. And this is coming from the guy who once had a cockroach infestation in his cabin, because he was too lazy to throw away a pile of Swiss cheese in the corner of the room (don't ask why it was there…).

Yes, it was that bad. The wallpaper, which was a hideous orange floral pattern that looked like it belonged on a 90 year old lady's couch, was peeling off of the wall. The furniture was covered with dust piled an inch high, and the dresser looked like it would collapse if you put a finger's weight on it. The smell was putrid, like a mix between mothballs and rotten ham and cheese sandwiches. And yes, I know what rotten ham and cheese sandwiches smell like. I wasn't the cleanest kid at Westover Hall…

When we walked in spiders scattered out of the room, and I _swear _I saw a raccoon climb out the open window. I yanked the room key out of the rusty doorknob, and sat on the bed, which responded by releasing an explosion of dust into the air.

Annabeth was the first to speak,

"Wow. This genuinely sucks." She scanned her eyes over the room again, and landed them on cluster of ants positioned in the far corner. "Ok. Ew. Is there a broom or anything in here?"

As she looked for the non-existent broom, Percy tried to make the best of the situation. He raised the creaky old window open, and pushed aside the moth-eaten blinds to let in some sunlight. I looked out the window, the see the glorious view of a dumpster and some rush hour traffic. Woah. We sure were livin the good life now…

And so, with nothing to do, we all sat in a circle on the stiff mattress and played with the pack of cards Percy so wisely brought. Before we knew it, 2 hours had gone by. Goldfish, Spit, Bridge, Hearts, Texas Hold'em, Crazy 8's, War, Blackjack; you name it, we did it. When we finished our 3rd round of Speed, we were clueless of what to play next. We'd played every game we knew at least twice, and there were still hours left until anyone would be tired enough to go to sleep.

"Oh! I know! Let's do Solitaire, we haven't played it yet." Jill suggested. Percy slouched,

"Nah, I hate that game. It's so boring." He went back to shuffling the cards, as he was doing before.

Jill scrunched up her nose, like she does when she gets mad. Oh gods, here we go again.

"Gods, Percy! Why do you have to be so annoying!?" and with that, she marched out of the room, with Annabeth at her heels.

Percy just shrugged, and went back to shuffling. He had barely even looked up at her outburst. Eh, I guess the guy was used to people calling him annoying.

After a couple of minutes of awkward silence, I decided to make some conversation,

"Jeesh, she sure gets pissed off a lot, right?" Percy looked up.

"Yeah. But you really can't blame her. I mean, it's probably her time of the month, ya know?" What? What the Hades does that mean? I've been out of the modern society for a while, I guess I'm not caught up on the lingo.

"Time of the month? What does that mean?" I asked. He gave me a strange look.

"Time of the month. Her monthly gift. Mother Nature taking a visit." Wow. I honestly had no clue what any of that meant. Why would a gift upset her? And 'Mother Nature' isn't real…?

"You lost me. Care to simplify it?" I asked him. Maybe it was an expression saying somebody was sick…? That would explain it. Percy suddenly got a knowing look. His mouth dropped.

"Oh my gods. Nobody ever taught you about, er… growing up, have they?" Uh, ya? You grow up, if you're lucky you live to get married, have kids, and then die of old age or whatever, as oppose to getting eaten by a Cyclops. That doesn't explain why Jill is….

Oh my freakin gods. Jill. Was. Pregnant.

That explains the mood swings, the crying, the excessive sleeping. It all made sense!

"OH MY GODS! SHE'S PREGNANT! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!" I shouted as I stood up. Ewwwww, that's disgusting! You would think a child of Athena would know not to… ya know, at 14. Or if she did, maybe use some birth control? Or protection? Or anything that would prevent her from having a Jill Jr. And then I got another thought. Who the Hades got her preggo!? It was like, The Secret Life of the American Demigod.

Percy rolled his eyes, "She's not pregnant, idiot."

She's not? Then… what is she? "Uh… then what's wrong with her?"

"Nothing's wrong with her, she just has her… uh… you know."

Does he not understand that I _don't _understand?! "No Percy, I _don't _know. I've been trying to explain that to you for the past 2 minutes!"

He sighed, and put his hand on my shoulder. "Nico, why don't we have a talk?"

***

_I will never see a girl the same way again._

So thanks, Percy. Thanks for ruining my teenage-hood with your graphic discussion. I really, really appreciate it.

Not.

***

**Yes, I know it wasn't that wonderful, but bear with me! **

**Reviewww!! And I'll give you BIRTHDAY CAKE!!! Yummm… you can't resist it… can ya?**


	8. Nico di Angelo, Bug Murderer

**Spring break!!! Yayy!! Ok, sorry I haven't updated in like, forever. But I had 7 tests last week, so I spent all my free time studying. And I'm in Maine with my family for Easter, so I'm sneaking this while everybody's out. Not supposed to be using the computer, oh well. I'll be home on Modayyy! **

**Disclaimer- I don't own PJO, sadly. Butttt…. I do own a gerbil! Ok, no, I don't…**

*******

It's a true miracle I didn't get carried away by ants and roaches overnight. They could carry me away and hide me in their nest. Stuck there, I would be bored, and lonely, and horribly deprived of sugary, or cheesy snacks. Well, that is until they ate me, of course. Like that poor Apollo camper one year… Ew. I can't even think about it. Curse you, you evil mutant insects, curse you…

Being the paranoid mastermind I am, I checked under the couch cushions before I lied down on them. Ya know, in case there was a 6 foot long snake coiled up under there, or something of the sort. Lucky I did, because although I didn't find a python, I did find a dead moth, a couple of earwigs fighting, 3 ants carrying away what looked like a bellybutton ring (I tried not to think about how they got it…), and in the far corner there was a hairy black spider cocooning a big ole' fly.

I have to say, I felt kinda bad for the poor thing. He was struggling, and trying to kick his legs free, but to no avail. So I took pity on the annoying bug. I took my shoe off and squished the spider. Then I scraped the bottom of my shoe on the table, cleaning the remains of the insect off. I felt like a bug's superhero. Really. I could get my own cape, and mask, and everything! It. Would. Be. Epic.

Ok, let's stop that fantasy, because the whole superhero thing is a bit too 8-year-old-boy for me.

Ah ha! Better idea: what if I was a bug _villain?_ Like, instead of _saving _innocent bugs, I could be _killing _not-so-innocent bugs! Ha! I could carry around a can of Bug-Be-Gone, and wear a ski-mask, and the whole shebang!

Ugh. Take everything I just said back. See, this is what I get for being locked in small areas for too long. My imagination goes wild. It's not a pretty sight…

Only then I realized now the fly was half wrapped-up in a sticky web under a couch, and would probably die there. Oh well, you can't win 'em all. I guess in the end I am more of a bug murderer…

So, slightly disgusted by what I found under there, I offered Percy the couch to sleep on. He accepted without thinking twice. Ha! Idiot. That's what he gets for ruining my 14-year-old-hood. Let the earwigs eat him, see if I care (for the record, that didn't happen, but I wouldn't care if it did. Pshhh).

I found a slightly less sickening part of the floor, and lied my blanket down on top of it. Ya know, as a protective shield. Because, who knows how many psychopaths rubbed their pimply butts on that floor? I'd bet a lot. This world has some sick, sick people in it…

And so, when everybody settled down, I followed their actions. Laying on my thin blanket, I had to say the floor felt more like a slab of concrete (purposely designed to give people kinks in their neck if they ever had the displeasure of laying on it), than a hotel room's poorly carpeted floor. But, since there was nowhere else to go, I stuck it out. Spread out over the floor, in the most comfortable position I could manage, I tried not to think about the hotel's lack of air conditioning (which proved to be hard, considering it was about 90 degrees outside and I was in full-length pants).

Soon, I was heavily sleeping, where I dreamt of rainbows and butterflies and my pet unicorn, Lollipop. She has a pink mane and sparkly hooves. Honest! I keep her at my house, at the corner of Sunshine Lane and Smile Drive. You can have a ride on her, if you'd like…

Hopefully, you realized none of that was true. Well, I _did_ fall asleep. And I _did _have a dream. But there wasn't anything happy about it…

***

_I woke up, and found myself sitting on a road. It was made of tiles, of blues, grays, and whites. They looked new; they were shiny and un-scuffed. Everything looked so clean and well-done. Every tile perfectly aligned. Every blade of grass, next to the road, cut to the exact same height; they were the purest color of green I'd ever seen (which wasn't much of an accomplishment, since I don't really spend my time observing the amount of chlorophyll in plants). _

_Next to me was a statue of Ares, standing with his hands on his hips. And I had to say, he was looking more like a biker hanging out in a skeezy bar than the Greek god of war. But he did have a sense of power, I can't deny that._

_I took in the rest of my surroundings. This place seemed oddly familiar, but I couldn't figure out where I was. Sure, the Ares statue should have given it away, but let's face it, I'm no son of Athena._

_There were small houses all around me, lining the sides of the road. A couple of cute girls were tending to some potted plants. One of them, with long and curly brown hair, pointed her finger at a plant abruptly, looking like she was about to cast a spell. Her companions mimicked her movements, pointing at their own plants. _

_Wow. Maybe I was in a mental institution. Because I personally don't know any girls who spend their time pointing their fingers at potted plants. Or maybe it was normal in whatever freakish town I was in. But then I noticed something: after they pointed at their plants, they started growing at an unusual speed. And not like, a foot a week. More like a foot a second. The soil erupted with brightly colored flowers that blossomed right before my eyes. One girl just had a seed and dirt in her pot, and seconds later there was a 5 foot tall sunflower in its place. _

_That's when I realized where I was: Olympus._

_I don't know why it took me so long to catch on. Right down the road there were a couple of buildings with Greek-styled columns, and a statue of Athena right smack in the middle. Wow, Nico. Way to be observant. _

_But I wasn't surprised. Demigod's dreams aren't usually normal. This wasn't uncommon for me at all. But the dreams have a message. Usually they tell you something. Something important. What was this dream trying to tell me? _

_Well, there really wasn't anything I could do. Was the message some girls can make plants magically grow? Because I already knew that. The Demeter kids can do the same thing, and they don't have to look like spazzes by waving around their fingers like wands. _

_Maybe whoever's in charge of this demigod-dream-thing messed up, and sent me to the wrong place. Maybe I should be in Cleveland right now, spying on some more evil half-bloods. Or in Spain, with Aphrodite. Yeah, I would like going on vacation with Aphrodite. I think I would like that a lot…_

_So focused on my thoughts of being sent to the wrong place (and the goddess of beauty, of course), I didn't even notice the oh-so-familiar gods, Apollo and Hermes, walking on the tiled road. They were having a conversation, but it seemed very casual. Nothing urgent or stressful. As they walked past me (they couldn't see me, since I wasn't physically there), I could catch onto their conversation. _

"_Did you hear? I heard that they _have two children from_ the Big Three." Apollo said. Like all gods and goddesses, he was good-looking. But Apollo was… different. While others looked like they could be __World's Most Handsome Lawyer__, or __America's Most Beautiful Housewife__, Apollo looked like he should be on the cover of __Surfer's Magazine__. He had teen model looks, and could easily be the spokesman for Abercrombie. _

"_Really? Who would that be?" asked Hermes. He looked more of an average guy; somebody you would see at their kid's soccer game, cheering in the stands with all the other parents. But, nonetheless good-looking. _

_Apollo grinned, "Well, Percy Jackson, of course. And Nico di Angelo, Hades' kid." My ears perked up at my name. They were obviously talking about the quest we were on. Standing up, I brushed the dirt off my jeans and followed the gods before they got too far away. I got to them just in time to hear Hermes reply._

"_Really? Now isn't that interesting. What a team they all make…", he went into thought, his eyes drifting away. "And I do believe they have not one, but two Athena children with them also, am I correct?" he asked. Kinda freaked out about how they knew all of this, I listened intently for Apollo's reply._

"_Yep. Two girls. Pretty ones too. There's Annabeth, but you know her of course," Hermes nodded, "and then there's her sister. Juliet? Julianne?" _

"_It's Jill…" I mumbled, but of course they didn't hear me. Apollo continued speaking._

"_Eh, something with a 'J'. She's the one who got the quest. It was just bad luck that she picked her sister to come along. It's like killing two birds with one rock." He finished. Uh-oh, that didn't sound very good on our part. _

_Hermes didn't miss a beat in replying._

"_What a shame. You would think, with two Athena girls, they wouldn't be naïve enough to fall into his trap. And Athena is quite fond of Annabeth, too. I do hope they both make it back to camp." Apollo nodded. Trap? What trap? More importantly, who's trap?? _

"_Could you be a little helpful? Maybe mention a name? An address? Zip code? State? COUNTRY?!" I exclaimed to the gods, and yet again, my voice was silent to them. "Come on, give me something! Anything!" This time, it was almost like Apollo heard me._

"_Eh, maybe they'll get lucky. Maybe Hephaestus will go easy on them. Or maybe he'll realize that taking his anger out on children isn't the best thing to do.", he snorted, "Yeah, like that's gonna happen. I bet he'll crush them like a couple of bugs." Wow. That was a delightful sentence. But at least I got a name: Hephaestus. He's the one calling us? Interesting. And why would he squish us like bugs? I feel that's some vital information. Hermes broke my thoughts._

"_No way. If he does, not only will Athena get madder at him, but he'll also have Hades and Poseidon against him. The guy's messed up, but he's not that stupid. But I'm not saying he won't dunk them in lava a couple of times." Sounds like fun. _

_And if I'm right, which I always am of course, he said Athena would get "madder" at him. Which means she's already mad at him. Right? Right. _

_Apollo laughed. " That's probably exactly what he's gonna do. After all, he is living under a volcano right now. After the labyrinth was destroyed, he had to relocate." Golden information. Thank you whatever's in charge of this demigod-dream-thing, I'm sorry for thinking you were stupid enough to send me to the wrong place. _

_But "living under a volcano" wasn't the most specific of facts. I overheard Annabeth saying there were about 1,500 active volcanoes in the world. 1,500. How are we supposed to figure out which one he's under?! For all we know, he could be in one of Iceland's volcanoes. Or he could be in Africa. Or the middle of the freakin' Pacific. _

"_Hey Apollo, wanna tell me where he is? Cause that would be awfully helpful. Dontcha think?" I asked the god sarcastically. To my greatest surprise, he turned around and looked me square in the eyes._

"_Don't worry, you'll figure it out. And if you don't? Eh, send me a postcard from wherever you end up." And with a snap of his fingers, I was back on the rock hard floor of Cheap Charlie's Motel._

Well, ain't that just dandy?

***

**I finally got my 100****th**** review!! YAY!!! Who wants to be my 101****st****? 102****nd****? 103****rd****?**

**Ah, finally some information. But anyways, did anybody else read FANG? The Maximum Ride book. Well I did. And I hated it. Absolutly hated it. Wayyy too sappy for me. And the ending was suck-ish. Oh well. **

**REVIEWWWW!!!**


	9. What Are You Doing With My Sister?

**I don't really have an excuse for updating so late… I was just lazy. Sorryyy!! But here it issss!!! I'll warn you now: nothing exciting happens. It's all humor and fillers… Whoops? I was actually planning on putting something in it, but it got really long… heehee…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anyyything in here. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Oh! Nevermind. I OWN JILL!!!(: Yayyy!!**

*******

Breaking the news hadn't gone as well as I had planned.

See, I had a pretty excellent plan. Well, all of my plans are excellent, but this one was just so… incredible. I was going to wake everybody up, and then we could discuss it.

Good plan, eh?

Maybe we could go to Starbucks. Ya know, have some coffee. I have recently grown quite fond of coffee… Plus, their cookies are delicious. Well, let's face it, everything there is delicious.

First, I shook Percy, trying to get him up. But, being the lazy slob he is, he refused to do anything more than shove his head under the pillow and mumble. He either said "go away" or "get some hay". But with Percy, you can never really be sure. I smacked his arm a couple more times, than temporarily gave up.

So, I decided to wake Percy up last. That way I had another 2 people helping me. I'd bet Annabeth and Jill could think of some sinister ways to get him up… Maybe some involving peanut butter and that dead moth in the corner of the room… Yeah. It'll be worth the wait.

Then, I went over to the girl's beds. I didn't want to wake them up too suddenly, since I'm obviously strikingly handsome. That could cause some serious problems. For instance, they may think that they had died overnight, and some gorgeous angel was waking them up. Which wouldn't be so bad, except Percy would probably get pretty upset if Annabeth was throwing herself at his younger cousin. I decided to be gentle.

First I went over to Jill's bed. She was curled up in a tiny ball, and her arms held the pillow across her chest in a tight embrace. I could hear her whispering lightly in her sleep; something about the nucleus? Nuclear? Nucleolus? Nuclee… something. For once, she looked peaceful. Well, more calm than peaceful. Unlike her usual 'I'm-sizing-you-up-and-I-just-decided-I-can-probably-kill-you-with-a-rubber-hammer' look. And believe me, that's a very common look for her.

So anyways, trying not to startle her with my devilish good looks and boyish charm, I lightly shook her arm. Nothing. So I tried again, only a little harder that time. Nada. So finally, I went to shake her awake, when a hand reached up and snatched the fabric of my shirt.

Pulling me down, they snatched a dagger off of the night table, and I heard them bite down on the handle to hold it with their teeth. Caught in a surprise attack, I was too confused to even figure out what was going on; much less fight back. Feeling stupid for leaving my sword in my backpack, which happened to be across the room leaning on the couch, I was defenseless. So I lied there, stunned, on the floor, while I tried to comprehend the situation.

Since it was dark (it couldn't have been later than 2 or 3 a.m.), I could only see a dim view of my surroundings. There was something next to my head, which was probably Annabeth's bed, and then something an arm's distance away. The bedside table? I put out my hand and felt it. Yep. Wood, with a drawer. If I could just reach out a little farther and grab the person's leg…

I tried reaching out, but my arm fell flat. There was still some space between my hand and the leg. And I was still trying to be as still as possible. What I _didn't _want to do was move around, make a lot of noise, and cause whoever was here to stuff an old rag into my mouth to shut me up. They taste gross… seriously, I know from experience.

So, as quietly as I could, I started to arrange myself into a sitting position. My fingers were just inches away from snatching the psycho's leg, when I felt a body tackle mine. The force pushed my head back, and I slammed it against the wooden legs of the bed. I could already feel a bump forming. I made out the feeling of a dagger pressed against my throat.

At camp, they teach you the importance of precision and stealth. How to stay quiet in even the trickiest situations. How to keep yourself hidden. Of course, all those lessons were wiped from my mind when my head made contact with the wood, and I could feel the throbbing where the bump slowly formed.

"Ow! What the hell are you doing!?" I screamed, struggling with the person on top of me. Once the words left my lips, they stopped fighting me. Remaining still, the continued sitting on my stomach; and I was just about to flip them over when they spoke.

"Nico?" expecting to hear some teenage guy's voice, I was surprised to hear the soprano sound of Jill's.

"No, it's Elvis Presley." I said sarcastically.

"Oh my gods! I am _so _sorry!" I felt the blade removed from the surface of my skin, but there was a stinging feeling where the skin broke.

Suddenly, she smacked my arm. "What the Hades were you thinking?"

"Well, it kinda went like this: What is this psycho doing, and why is there a blade pressed against my throat?" I stated nonchalantly.

She stared back at me with a glare. "That's _not _what I meant!" Angry, she tried to get up. Gripping the bed comforter for support, she pulled herself to her feet. As she was talking, she was trying to step around me; which must have been hard considering I was sprawled across the floor and taking up a hell of a lot of room. "What I _meant, _was why were you – woah!" she exclaimed as she tripped over my arm, falling down again.

She put her arms out to catch her fall, and landed with both her hands on my chest. I decided to lighten the mood with my charm.

"Can't keep your hands off me, eh?" I asked jokingly, as I winked at her. She responded with an expertise eye-roll.

"As if, di Angelo." Ouch. Ah, well. I'm sure I have a thousand girls lined up for me when I get back to camp. Okay, there's about a one in a million chance of that _ever _happening, but still. She spoke again as she was trying to detangle herself from me. "Just help me get up."

Unfortunately, I'm not known for my excellent untangling skills. Seriously. I can barely untie a shoelace. So untangling bodies was a bit harder. It was dark, it was cold, and I was tired. I couldn't see a thing I was doing, and I'm _pretty sure_ I was making things worse. Zeus knows how, but I managed to get her hair caught on my ring. I discovered this by nearly ripping a chunk out. But that's beyond the point.

So, I really couldn't do anything, except hope she was good at untangling knots. It turns out she wasn't.

***

I don't really know how long we laid there. But after a while, I fell asleep.

You really can't blame me. I mean, I'm a _teenager_. What do we do? We eat, we sleep, and in my case, we kill monsters. That's about it. And since I didn't see a hamburger anywhere around here, and I hadn't seen any mythological creatures on the way to our room, I chose the third option: I slept.

It was a pretty peaceful sleep too. No dreams about teenage and middle-aged gods, no dreams about the boogie-man, and no dreams about Aphrodite girls (they're scarier than you think…).

Of course, everything good in my life comes to an abrupt end in horrible ways. So, obviously, Annabeth ruined my slumber.

"What. The. Fudge?!" Ok, she didn't really say "fudge", but I'm trying to keep my thoughts PG-13. Believe me, it's harder than you would think.

Anyways, I opened my eyes at her remark, after she so rudely awakened me. That's when I first remembered I was on the floor. Well, it was either that or I shrunk to the size of a bug. But, I'm pretty sure it was the first one.

See, I like Annabeth. She's like a sister to me. But right now, I wanted to murder her. Giving her my best death glare, I asked her just _what _she thought she was doing.

"What _I'm _doing? What about what _you're _doing? Or maybe, what you and _my sister _are doing!?" she practically screamed at me. Oh, yeah. I forgot about her. I looked up, and sure enough, she was still lying on me. Heh, I told her she couldn't keep her hands off of me…

"Well we _were _sleeping. Until you woke me up." Closing my eyes, I tried to fall back asleep. Until Annabeth kicked me.

"Why is my little sister lying on top of you!?" she screamed.

Really, I had two choices.

A) I could tell her the truth, then Jill would get up, Annabeth would untangle her hair from my man jewelry, and that would be that

or…

B) I could be my usual sarcastic, witty self and entertain myself for a while.

Needless to say, I chose B.

"Well, I was just lying in my corner, minding my own business, when suddenly she comes and wakes me up. Kinda like you're doing now. Anyways, she started going on and on about emotions and she confessed her undying love for me. So what was I to do? Break her poor little heart, and ruin the remains of her teenage love-life? Of course not. So I serenaded her with my wonderful karaoke skills, I sang Ke$ha, in case you were wondering, and then somehow we ended up here." With this, I earned a punch in the gut by the lovely Jill.

"Sorry buddy, not in this lifetime." She turned to Annabeth, "He snuck up on me, so I tackled him with my knife. After some fighting, we ended up in a human knot. That seem more realistic?" her big sister nodded, and after a bit, I was successfully detangled from Athena's daughter.

After all that chaos, I realized that I never told them the reason we _went _through all that chaos. So, I quickly explained my dream to the sisters, and they absorbed the information like sponges. Annabeth started drawing a rough sketch of the continents, and pinpoints of where all the volcanoes were. Jill pointed out which ones she forgot, and helped her brainstorm. I was too… uneducated to help them. So, I just wondered around the room, too awake to go to bed.

Have you noticed this whole time, Percy was asleep? Throughout the screams, the fighting, and Annabeth's fit. Sound asleep. Does that just show you how lazy my cousin is? Well, after I was untied, I woke him up.

How, you ask?

Well, I spit on his face.

Ah, the wonders of cousinly love.

***

**Reviewwww!!!**


	10. Scooby Snacks and Frappachinos

**Hola mis amigos. How's it goin? Pretty good over here. Sorry for not updating for a while, but here I am!! Yay!!! Anyways, since I owe you guys, I'll give you a wise piece of advice that my fortune cookie told me:**

"**Want a delicious meal? Try our new Spicy Beef Chow Mein!" **

**I did try it, and it was not at all a delicious meal. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of PJO, McDonalds, Scooby Snacks, or really anything else for that matter.**

I have recently learned that the Athena girls are… ambitious. They do what they want when they want; and once they set their mind on something, there's no stopping them.

Which explains why I wasn't particularly happy when they told me their plan of having me transporting them all to Missouri, so we could start our country-wide-volcano-trip.

Obviously, they don't understand how much it drains my energy. If I shadow-traveled 3 people, plus myself, across the country, I would easily be out for 2 days. Maybe 3. And they obviously can't go on with the quest when their most valuable member (and most good-looking, by the way) is out cold, drooling on whoever is unfortunate enough to be sitting next to me. Plus, what do they expect to do; leave me in the car while they go exploring dangerous, but totally cool, volcanoes? Uh, no. Not on my watch.

"Nico. Let's be realistic. If we have to drive across the country, it would take us _days. _Plus, think about all the money we'd be wasting on gas! We could easily loose all of our American money. And I'd like you to try to find a diner that accepts drachmas for hamburgers. But, if we shadow-traveled, we could be there in seconds! _Seconds_! Then, you could sleep for a while, while we check out some volcanoes. What do you say?"

Annabeth was a pretty good negotiator. Really, she was. One time she convinced a drive-through guy to give her two free hamburger meals, if she came back and paid for it the next day; the next day we were 2 states away, trying to do the same thing to a Taco Bell guy. Once again, it worked.

But, that doesn't mean she convinced me to do this stupid task for her. No way in _Hades_ would I take them across the country. Plus, I was both sleep _and _food deprived. I was currently living off 5 hours of rest and half of a Weight Watcher's granola bar. _Weight Watchers granola bar. _Do you see how desperate for food I am? I've become a disgrace to the teenage-boy world.

"No. Absolutely not. No way. As if. Keep dreaming. Never." I responded, "Besides, how do you expect to get around once we get there? Walk from state to state?" It's true. If the car's here, they only way to get around is by using their good ole' legs. Which means someone will have to carry me. So, ha.

Annabeth looked confused. "By using the car, of course. What did you think, we were going to leave it here? You'll have to take it with us. Duh." She looked at me like I had the IQ of Paris Hilton.

"What the *$^& (once again, I'm trying to keep my thoughts PG) are you thinking?! In your mind, am I Superman or something?? Although the similarities are astonishing, I am not in fact Superman. So how the #%! do you expect me to shadow travel 4 people, _and a car_, across the country?! I get tired when I shadow-travel to breakfast because I'm too lazy to walk, for the god's sake! There's. No. Way." A car. A CAR! She's kidding me.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. I forgot she had a strict rule about cursing. Oh well.

At this point, both Jill and Percy were gathered around, listening in on the argument. It was pretty boring around here, and we were all desperate for excitement. It just so happened that me and Annabeth were the provided entertainment.

Nobody was talking. We were both too mad. Her grey eyes seemed to get colder when she was angry, and they met my narrowed dark brown ones like two swords clashing. Even though I towered over her, she was still kinda creeping me out. She had slowly crossed her hands over her chest, and shifted her weight to one leg; she looked like she could kill me without thinking twice. And knowing her, I don't doubt it.

After what seemed like hours, but that was probably just because it's hard to stand still, somebody talked.

"Hey, uh, Nico? Sorry to interrupt your little staring contest there with my girlfriend, but didn't you transport you, me, and Mrs. O'Leary to Lu-" seeing the look on Annabeth's face, he rephrased his sentence, "to that lady's house? Like, a couple states away?"

"Yea. And do you remember how tired I was afterwards? And anyways, that was mostly Mrs. O'Leary doing the work. Hellhounds can shadow-travel a lot easier. Plus, she's been doing it for hundreds of years. I've been doing it since I was 10."

Percy was confused. But no worries, it's a common feeling for him. "Uh, then why don't we just get a hellhound? Simple as that."

_Simple as that._ I officially have the stupidest cousin in the world.

"Yes, Percy. We find a hellhound, capture it, train it against its instincts to obey us, learn to trust it, then we can shadow-travel with it. _Simple as that_." I said mockingly. He sat back, defeated; and I went back to glaring at Annabeth.

"For once in his life, Nico's right. That's near impossible. And I doubt Mrs. O'Leary is randomly taking a jog around the country and is happening to be taking a break outside in the motel parking lot, so we need Nico to suck it up and stop being such a drama queen." Ouch.

"Technically, I would be a drama _king._ And last time I checked, being a king isn't a bad thing. Even if I was the king of all drama. See, that doesn't sound too horrible, now doesn't it?" Boy, if looks could kill, I would be a dead man. "And anyways, since I'm a king, I can't be bothered by foolish things like looking at volcanoes. Sorry, but you'll have to find someone else to do it." I shrugged and went to turn away, when she grabbed my arm and dug her fingernails into my skin. I turned back to face her, and met her with a loathing glare.

"You. Will. Do. What. I. Say. Understand?" she asked, pausing after each letter. I could feel blood trickling down my arm where her nails broke the skin, and I'm fairly sure I was about to pee myself. Yes, Annabeth Chase, a 5'4" blondie, was scaring big ole' Nico di Angelo (the great). As hard to believe as it is, you've never seen Annabeth Chase's death glare. I could swear, there were lasers shooting out of them.

After a couple more minutes of sharing our silent hatred, I grabbed my backpack from the couch and walked out of the room. I could faintly hear Annabeth objecting as I left, but I ignored her and kept going. Somebody's footsteps padded behind mine, struggling to catch up with my long strides.

I saw a flash of blonde, and was prepared to tell Annabeth off, when I saw it was instead her younger sister. Once she caught up with me, she tried to casually walk beside me, but in the end had to speed-walk.

She looked up at me. "Hey." I could see she had her backpack slung over her shoulder, too.

I met her gaze. "Hey." We continued walking down the long hallways. As we passed one room, I could hear two people arguing over what seemed like deodorant choices. The best, by the way, is obviously Axe. Just putting it out there.

Jill was the next to talk. "So, where ya headin? Starbucks? Because I could _really _go for a double chocolate chip frappachino. You?" Despite my suck-ish mood, I had to smile. After a couple of seconds of not answering, she talked again.

"Ya know, it doesn't _have _to be Starbucks. I could do Dunkin Donuts too. I wouldn't mind having a Coffee Coolatta… Really, anything delicious with caffeine. I'm a pretty easygoing girl." She grinned up at me.

"Honestly, I don't see you getting any frappachino, coolatta, latte, or anything else of the sort in the near future.. But if you want, I'm pretty sure I can get you some old coffee grounds from a restaurant's garbage. Hey, maybe I'll find some leftover toast crust, too." Mmmm… sounds delicious. She started laughing as we reached the ground floor of the hotel.

"Tempting, but I'll have to pass. Maybe next time."

We walked outside, and were met by Percy and Annabeth leaning against the car and talking amongst themselves. I groaned in disappointment, but kept walking nonetheless. When we reached them, Jill asked the question I had been wondering the answer to.

"How'd you guys get here so quick? We didn't even see you on our way out." Annabeth tilted her chin upwards, signaling to look up. After a couple seconds Jill found the answer, for she let out a small "Ohhh…"

Looking up, I saw what she had realized. There was a fire escape, like those on apartments, that was leading from the windows to the side of the parking lot. And, of course, our window was one of the ones connected to the metal stairway. Wow, Nico. Way to be observant.

I saw Annabeth as a big sister, and I'm fairly sure the feeling was mutual. But not that she saw me as an older sister, that she saw me as a little brother. Because the other way would be – okay. You get it.

But as I'm sure everybody already knows, siblings get in fights. Quite frequently, actually. So this dispute wasn't a very uncommon thing in the glorious life of Nico di Angelo.

She turned back to look at me. "So… I've decided we could make a compromise. Is that okay for the king?" she asked, mocking me with the last part. I put on a sarcastic smile, and answered.

"Of course. Well, as long as it's ok with the Wicked Witch of the East." Seeing her eyes narrow was enough praise for my response.

"Charming." She changed her voice so it was as though she was speaking to a small child, "If you do this, I'll give you a… Scooby Snack! Yayyy!" Now it was my turn to narrow my eyes. She began speaking again.

"Alright, seriously. If you do this, I'll buy you… a large French fries from McDonald. Deal?" She knew that I was desperate for fattening foods, but not _that _desperate.

"No way. That's not enough." I made a hand gesture that very simply said "more".

"Fine. A large French fries and a soda. Now, deal?" I shook my head "no".

"Geez! _Somebody's _selfish. I'll buy you a large French fries, a soda, a hamburger of your choice, _and _I'll even buy you an ice cream cone." My eyes lit up with excitement as she mentioned the ice cream cone. I hadn't had one of those since… 1903. And believe me, that's a long time to not have an ice cream cone.

The next thing I knew, I was in the car shadow traveling across the country, with 3 more teenagers in the other seats. I managed to keep my eyes open throughout the journey, but once we arrived, I was out cold.

I woke up to a searing pain in my forehead, and the taste of blood running down my face and into my mouth. I reached my hand up to feel what was going on, and I felt another hand smack mine away.

Because apparently, while the oh-so-great-adventurers were out exploring various volcanoes, somebody had come over to the unconscious and totally defenseless boy and stapled a note to my forehead. What I was feeling was my brave, yet not-so-bright, cousin trying to rip the staple out.

Ah, _The Glorious Life of Nico di Angelo. _

**Revieww!!(:**


	11. Author's Note

Okay, hope you're not disappointed that this isn't a chapter, but I have a very serious question. Although it's my story, I would like you guys to have a part of it.

Ya know, since you're the ones reading it, not me.

My opinion is important, but so is yours. Anyways, here's the dilemma.

At first, I thought that Nico and Jill would eventually get together. It was definite. But as the story goes on, I'm not quite sure. I really can't decide.

Maybe they'll just have a strong friendship? It could really go either way.

What do you guys think? We'll have a vote.

Should they get together? Yes, or no?

Please review or send me a PM!

Thanks!

-BrightBlueConverse


	12. The Spice Girls Can't Solve My Problem

**So, guess what? This chapter was written, edited, and ready to be posted on Friday. **

**But thennn… my mother decided she would clean out my computer while I was at school, and deleted all my Word documents, which included Being 14 is Tough chapter 11. So, I had to completely re-write this. Thanks, mom.**

**IN OTHER NEWS! (I suggest you read this if you reviewed on the author's note)**

**I thank the 41 people who reviewed on my question and gave me their opinion. I got a lot of "YES!"'s, and some "NO!"'s, but ultimately, it's my decision. So, I **_**defiantly **_**took all of the reviews into consideration, and thanks to the people who gave ideas (especially one, who completely inspired me to give you all a surprise. I'll PM them, so they'll know who they are). And I have made my decision. But, I can't tell you what it is! You'll just have to read to find out(:**

**P.S. I don't own anything except an obese dog (named Jamie)**

I guess some people don't understand how amazingly simple it is to leave a note for somebody. You write it, and then you give it to the person.

Now, is that so difficult?

No. It's absolutely not. So I couldn't quite grasp why some complete moron had felt it was necessary to _staple it to my freakin' forehead._

My forehead!

After about 20 minutes of having my dearest friends take turns trying to get the sliver of metal out of my head, Percy pinched my shoulder to distract me, than ripped out the staple with one painful yank.

After showing him just how colorful my vocabulary could be, I took the first aid kit we had brought and began cleaning the blood dried onto my forehead.

It had better be from Zeus himself, because nothing else was even _close _to being important enough to put a noticeable flaw in my gorgeous skin. I mean, what if it leaves a scar?! My looks could be _ruined. _

Ha, that's a joke; nothing could ruin a face this beautiful.

Okay, that's beyond the point.

The point is that I had expected the letter stapled to my forehead to be some dark, ominous letter; like "_Your death will come sooner than expected." _Or, something unbelievably stupid, like "_Sweet dreams, Sleeping Beauty."_

In reality, it turned out to be neither of those. Instead, a short, rhyming, poem was scrawled neatly across the paper. A poem. A _poem. _I was facing the possibility of ugliness for _a poem_! This world is a sick, sick place.

Whoops, sorry. Rambling about my looks again, shame on me. Annabeth said I was too conceited (which is ridiculous on many levels, because being conceited is only when ugly people think they're beautiful. It doesn't qualify for me, because I _am _beautiful.) so, I'm gonna talk about the poem now.

Percy and Annabeth were reading it first; then after a couple of moments, they passed it on. Jill was holding it, while I read it over her shoulder. It said,

_North and South,_

_Forever caught in the middle._

_The sister is who you'll find_

_As the answer to this riddle. _

It was simple. 4 lines, 17 words, 3 punctuation marks.

But at the very bottom, dangling right under the words, was a single letter. A letter that completely changed the perspective and meaning of the poem.

-_H_

H. Chances are, that "H" stands for Hephaestus. As in the god that has it out for all of us.

And a note from him? Not the best sign.

But what does the poem mean?

Why was it talking about north and south, and then about sisters?

Why is Hephaestus trying to help us, or is he just trying to confuse us?!

Why did Edward leave Bella?!?

I DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS!!!

Okay, I got a little carried away, but seriously.

I looked to Annabeth, hoping she could give me some idea of what the poem was about, but no such luck. She looked deep in thought; her eyebrows scrunched together and her eyes squinted.

Percy was counting on his fingers; which I really didn't understand, since this was a riddle, not a math problem. But hey, Percy is a… unique individual. I learned it's best to let him be.

Jill just sat there and drummed her fingers on her knee, nodding her head to some unknown song. Perhaps that was her way of thinking, or maybe she just didn't give a damn. It could really go either way. But honestly, I'm not one to judge.

Sisters…Sisters… Who were the sisters?

Jill and Annabeth were sisters. And he was the one who was mad at Athena. But they didn't fit into the riddle; it just didn't make sense.

Who else were sisters? The Muses are sisters. But once again, they just don't fit.

Some goddesses are sisters, but there so many pairs that I wouldn't even know where to begin to start. Hestia and Hera, Athena and Artemis; too many.

I turned to Annabeth again. "So, Annabeth, this is usually when you bore us with an educational prediction that I don't understand at all, but pretend to so you don't think I'm an idiot and bore me even more with the explination of your prediction and I'd much rather be confused than bored and I really need to breathe now so I'm gonna shut up." I took in a couple of deep breaths and took comfort in the familiar feeling of air rushing into my lungs. I really need to take more breaks in my speech.

She looked at me and inhaled, like she was about to make an equally long statement as mine, and then spoke. "I don't know what it means."

All heads turned to her at those 6 words; looks of pure bewilderment on everyone's faces. If Annabeth can't solve this simple riddle, the world is officially ending. I suggest you grab your loved ones, some videogames, and a lifetime supply of junk food, and head to your nearest bomb shelter to live the rest of your life in happiness.

"You don't _know_?What do you mean you don't know?! What are we supposed to do now!?" Percy had gotten up and began pacing as he hectically spoke to Annabeth. She just shrugged.

Jill was still tapping her leg. I even forgot she was here, until she started humming, and eventually mumbling, some song.

"_We are family. I got all my sisters with me…" _she sang the familiar song. I just stared at her. Maybe all this stress had sent her bonkers.

"What on _Earth _are you doing?" I asked her. She stopped her singing/drumming and looked up at me.

"Me?" I nodded. "Oh. I'm singing" she said. Then, continued her song. Yep. Completely bonkers.

I rolled my eyes. "Obviously. What I meant was _why _are you singing? No offense, but I really don't think the Spice Girls are gonna help us with this one."

She sighed dramatically, "Oh, Nico. You obviously don't understand this situation. The poem talks about sisters. The song talks about sisters. See? It really is quite simple." She continued her singing, "_We are family. Get up everybody and sing_…"

Annabeth had glanced at her, but decided to leave it be, and put on her thinking face again.

Eh, whatever.

Sisters….

Sisters….

Oh! What's her name… Sicily… Sicilia… Sally…

Scylla!

Scylla and Charybdis! The freaky sisters from the Sea of Monsters!

Percy and Annabeth had run into them on a quest. That could mean something, right?

Ha! Maybe I'm really a son of Athena…

….

….

….

Okay, scratch that. My math average at my old school was a 59. So let's forget about this whole _Nico di Angelo, child of Athena_ thing.

But, I had to tell Annabeth. And if I was right, I would rub it in her face for the rest of my life. And, who knows? If there's anything after that, I'll make sure to gloat about it in the afterlife, too.

But before I could do any face-rubbing, I had to tell her my idea.

"Annabeth! Annabeth! I just figured out who the sisters are! It's Scylla an-"

"And Charybdis? Already considered that. They're not the sisters the poem's talking about. Better luck next time."

Fish paste.

Ha. I got that from Spongebob (the Stoll brothers had brought in a portable TV, and one day there was nothing on…). But it doesn't really make sense. I mean, how can you make a fish into paste? Ew, mental image. That's just nasty…

Back to the previous subject, my idea, sadly, wasn't right.

Yep… defiantly not a child of Athena.

But I was determined to have something to rub in her face, so I kept shooting out my ideas from before.

"Hera and Hestia"

"Nope"

"Athena and Artemis"

"No"

"The Muses"

"Uh-uh"

"A-" I was suddenly cut off by somebody yelling.

"WAIT!" I looked over towards the direction the voice came from. Jill had stood up and was holding her hand out as if it could freeze us from talking anymore. After she had everybody's attention, she continued speaking.

"Annabeth, I need you to do this." She ruffled through her backpack until she had found an old scrap of paper and a pencil broken in half. She handed them to her sister. "Write this sentence for me: The penguins live in the south".

What was up with this girl?? First, singing old Spice Girls songs and now this? I knew I shouldn't have come on this quest…

Annabeth did as instructed, then gave back the paper. Written across it was now: _The penguins live in the south. _When Jill saw it, she smiled; then held the paper up for everybody to see, as if she was doing a school presentation.

"Look at this sentence, Annabeth." She took the poem from her sister's dangling hand, and then put it next to the scrap paper. "Now, compare the sentence you just wrote with the poem from Hephaestus. What do you see?"

Annabeth was now totally absorbed in the papers. Her eyes darted quickly between the two, and her face was determinedly set. You could tell she was analyzing every letter, detail, and word. After a minute or so, her eyes widened and she smiled.

"Ah, ha! I got it! Nice job! How'd you pick up on that without comparing them?" she asked Jill. Her younger sister shrugged.

Percy spoke up. "Uh, what did she pick up on? What did you find, and what does it have to do with penguins?" Annabeth rolled her eyes, then handed Percy both papers.

"See for yourself, Seaweed Brain." He smiled at the nickname.

I came over next to him and looked at the papers. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with either one of them, and I couldn't quite figure out what penguins had to do with the poem. Maybe it was representing something else? I dunno.

After a couple of moments of silence, Jill and Annabeth got bored. They slouched down and started talking about the newly discovered type of jellyfish in the Pacific Ocean.

As I stared at the papers, I heard Percy's voice next to my ear. "Pssttt…. Nico." He was whispering, so I felt it was necessary to whisper back.

"What?" he looked around, like he was afraid somebody would see us.

"I don't get it. But I don't wanna say anything."I didn't get it either. Eh, maybe it's a relative thing. Then again, really we _all_ are relatives, but whatever.

"Why don't you want to tell them? They'll just give us the answer. Problem solved." I hadn't realized I was still whispering, until I heard myself speaking,

"Because, then they'll think we're stupid."

I rolled my eyes. "Percy, they're know-it-all, braniac, daughters of Athena. They think _everybody_ is stupid." It was true. Almost like they were the human beings, and the rest of the world was just monkeys. Although, monkeys are pretty smart. Some of them can paint! And others are sent into outer space in rocket ships! I mean, how cool is that? It's every 5 year old's dream!

"Whatever. I say we pretend we get it, and then when they're talking about it we'll catch on. Deal?" he asked. I had to say, it was a pretty good plan. Figure out what's going on with this poem, and not get teased by Annabeth about my abnormally low IQ.

I went with Percy's plan. "OH! I get it!" I said at a high enough volume to make sure the girls heard. It worked, they had looked up from their discussion.

Percy smiled. "Me too! It's so obvious!" I nodded my head.

Jill stared at us. "Liars." How did she know?! If I do say so myself, we were pretty darn convincing!

I gasped in fake surprise and held my hand to my chest for dramatic effect, "Why, Jill! I'm deeply offended that you would think such things about my cousin and I! We are in fact telling the truth. Now, I expect a formal apology to both myself and my cousin immediately!" She just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Oh, really? Well then, why don't you tell me what's different? Or maybe Percy should answer this question. Huh, Percy?" she looked at him. Even though she was only 14, I could bet he was scared of her right now.

"Uh… I… I mean, we… the thing that's different is… uhm… I DON'T KNOW!" At the end of his words, he folded his arms over his face, as if by doing that he was protecting himself from Jill.

For the umpteenth time that day, Jill rolled her eyes. "Look at the "North" and "South" in the poem. What's weird about the first letter?" she asked.

After a second, I got it. "They're both capitalized, even though "South" isn't the first word in the sentence." She smiled.

"Exactly. South shouldn't have been capitalized, because we don't capitalize directions in the English language. So, since it _is, _that means it's one of two things. One: North and South are referring to a specific person or thing. Or, two: North and South are referring to a place."

I hadn't realized it, but Annabeth had gotten out the volcano map she had picked up earlier in the trip, and was scanning it urgently. After a minute, she spoke.

"Actually, it's the second one." She stated. Jill turned around to face her.

"How do you know?" she asked.

Annabeth held up the map, in which she had drawn on 3 circles with a bright red marker.

If you looked close, you could see each circle was around a volcano.

If you looked closer, you would see that the top and bottom circles were around two volcanoes, one titled "North Sister" and the other "South Sister".

And if you looked even closer, you would see the third circle, the one that had sloppily drawn arrows pointed towards it, was labeled "Middle Sister".

When recognition hit everybody, Annabeth took order.

"Alright, everybody in the car. Let's get a move on things, shall we?"

**The next chapter will have more action, I promise(: **

**Review! Pretty please with ice cream and sugar on top?**

**Ha! Haven't used that line since I was like 7(:**


	13. I Owe You One Milk Chocolate Milky Way

**Ah, I don't know what I was thinking in the last chapter. Thank you Minnie Cyrus, for pointing out **_**We Are Family **_**is by Sister Sledge, not The Spice Girls. I really don't know why I put The Spice Girls. So, I apologize. Sorry!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from PJO, or really anything for that matter. **

Apparently, after shadow-traveling, I was out for 2 days. Which, by the way, is a new personal record. Never before have I slept 24 solid hours. Screw Edward and Jacob, go Team Nico!

Anyway, besides the whole poem thing, the first thing I noticed after waking was the fact we weren't in West Virginia anymore. Well, obviously; that was the whole reason I was asleep. But I didn't think we were in Missouri either. If you wanted to, you could call it teenager's intuition.

If you looked out the window, all you could see was grass. Grass, grass, and more grass. I didn't see any flowers, no trees, just grass. It looked like it was literally the middle of nowhere. We were on a narrow dirt road, and occasionally we would hit a bump and everybody would curse as we were thrown out of our seats.

Occasionally, we saw a farm. Nothing big; a small house, a barn, with a tractor usually parked in between the two. There were one or two cows lazily grazing away at the grass, acting as live lawnmowers. A couple of chickens (or roosters, or hens; I can never tell the difference) were walking around, doing their weird chicken/rooster/hen walk.

My iPod had died when I accidently fell asleep with it on a couple of days ago, so the only thing I could do to keep myself from dying of boredom was watching the strange animal walk.

It's pathetic that the only source of entertainment for who-knows-how-long was some unknown type of bird doing a little dance. Truly pathetic.

I wondered why nobody else, *cough* Percy *cough*, was complaining about how bored they were. Maybe somebody had brought something that could potentially save me from a slow painful death of boredom.

I looked ahead of me; Annabeth was driving. She had earplugs in, and for a second I was excited that she had music, but then I realized it was just another audio book she had brought with her. Percy was in the passenger's seat, sound asleep. He had drool leaking from the corner of his mouth and onto the seat. Ew.

I looked next to me, expecting to see Jill with a book or something. Instead, she had earplugs in, like her sister. Another audio book, wonderful. But instead of having a CD player with a spinning disk inside, she had a blue iPod nano.

Hallelujah!

She probably only had Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers on it, but I wasn't intending on listening to it.

Without thinking twice, I started talking to her.

"Hey, uh, Jill?" I asked.

No response.

Sigh, she must have it on too loud. Kids these days with they're blasting music and colorfully-dyed-hair.

I reached out and shook her arm. "Jill."

She looked over, then took out the earplugs and pressed the pause button.

"Yes?"

"You brought an iPod." Wow, Nico. Way to state the obvious.

"Really?" she looked down, "Wow! I hadn't noticed! Thank you _so_ much for informing me." She said with sarcasm flooding out of her mouth.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, okay, whatever. Did you… uh… bring a charger?" I asked.

"Of course, you moron. What kind of idiot brings their iPod with them on a quest and expects it to live the whole time?"

Apparently, the kind of idiot like me.

After I didn't answer, she got the message. After laughing quite a bit, she spoke to me.

"_Wow_, Nico. Just… wow." She put her earplugs back in, and was about to press the "play" button when I stopped her.

"Okay, okay. It wasn't the brightest thing to do, but seriously; can I use the charger?" I hoped she let me; I could almost hear the music playing in my ears.

To my greatest pleasure, she reached inside her backpack and began to rummage around, until she pulled out the long, white plug that charges your iPod. I reached out and tried to grab it, but she pulled her arm away, stopping me.

"Woah, woah, woah. Slow down, buddy. You think I'm just gonna hand this over?" Well, duh. After I nodded, she laughed. "As if! I'm a daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom. And it isn't _wise_ to just hand things over when there's nothing in it for you." She dangled the cord just out of my reach, taunting me.

"It's _called_ a favor."

Once again, she laughed. "Ha! Hate to break it to you, but I don't _do _favors. So, what are ya gonna do to persuade me?"

She dropped the cord back into her bag.

As much as I hate to say it, I like the way this girl thinks. But right now, it was a major disadvantage on my part.

I sighed. What did I own that I could give her? Nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada.

Basically, all I own is clothes, a toothbrush, and Coke (please be aware that I'm talking about the soda, not the drug). And I wasn't giving any of those things up. Besides, I highly doubt she would want any of them.

What do girls like…

Boy bands in tight jeans?

Stuffed animals of puppies and kittens?

Unicorns and ponies?

Chocolate?

CHOCOLATE! Yes! That's it!

_Every _girl likes chocolate; it's a well-known fact.

The only problem? I don't have any chocolate.

Jill was getting impatient. She was tapping her leg, showing she was annoyed. "Come on, di Angelo. I seriously don't have all day." She paused, "Okay, I actually _do_ have all day, but I can think of about 100 better ways to spend it than waiting for you."

"That's weird, because I can't think of a single better way for a girl to spend her day than sitting next to the gorgeous Nico di Angelo." Actually, I could. But I wasn't gonna let her know that…

"Okay, you have _got _to be kidding me." I shrugged. "Ugh, whatever. What's the deal? You get to borrow my charger, and in exchange I get…" she paused, waiting for me to fill in the blank.

"Chocolate?" I asked, uncertainly. The last thing I wanted her to do was laugh in my face.

But instead, her eyes widened at my proposal. "Chocolate? You have chocolate with you, like, right now?" she seemed anxious.

"Uh… no?" at this, her face dropped. "But I can get you some at the next gas station?" she smiled again.

"A regular chocolate bar or a candy bar?" Hm…

"Candy bar." She seemed to like this answer, because she smiled even wider.

"3 Musketeers or Milky Way?" Tough one… But, when in doubt, choose the one with caramel.

"Milky Way." The smile stayed on her face, but she still had one more question:

"Milk chocolate or dark?" Eh… what do girls like more? Milk chocolate or dark chocolate? Or is it a personal thing? Or does it run in the family? And why am I asking myself these pointless questions when I should be answering her?

I made a quick decision. "Milk."

She turned away, and began to go through her bag. At first, I thought I had made the wrong choice. Maybe she was a dark chocolate kind of girl. Maybe she lived for dark chocolate. Maybe she stuffed her pockets with dark chocolate so she wouldn't ever be without it.

But then, she pulled out the charger and held it out in her hand.

"Deal."

After plugging one side of the white cord into the little car charger thingy and the other into my iPod, I got to listen to my amazingly amazing music while we passed some more empty acres of land. Glorious.

Suddenly, I felt like my seat was on vibrate. Like I was in one of those super cool recliner chairs, and somebody had stole the remote and was pressing random buttons.

The vibrating soon turned into shaking, and it got more violent as time passed. I thought it was just me, but Percy had woken up and the sisters had taken out their earplugs and were listening intently.

I put my iPod away (protect the valuables at all costs) and looked around, trying to figure out what was causing our car to shake like a cell phone on vibrate. Nothing had changed; there was still grass and dirt roads and the occasional cow in the distance.

But if you looked closely at the road, you would see that the little pebbles and rocks appeared to be hopping up and down on the dirt. In reality, the road was shaking just as much as the car.

We all shook and slid out of our seats, and the noise was so loud I was forced to shout so Annabeth could hear me. "WHAT'S GOING ON?" I screamed. Even with me using my loudest voice, she didn't seem to get the message.

But Jill did.

She tapped my shoulder, her eyes filled with fear, and motioned to look out the back window.

When I did, I honestly expected to see Godzilla, or a T-Rex, or even a giant mutated cow running down the road.

Instead, I saw a big black blob with 4 legs and a pair of straight and pointed ears following the car; causing the ground to shake with every step. I instantly knew what it was.

I heard Percy scream out "EARTHQUAKE!" from the passenger seat, and saw him cover his head with his hands. Of course, since he was invincible, there was no need for that; but it had a protective feeling about it.

"No, it's not an earthquake. IT'S A HELLHOUND!" I screamed. Jill shrieked, like her worst fear had just shown up on her doorstep and asked to come inside for a cup of tea.

I guess this time Annabeth heard me, because at my words she pressed down harder on the gas and the car went flying forward. But it was still no good, the beast was catching up with us faster than I would have thought imaginable.

I knew why we were trying to run away from it: we weren't ready for a fight. We had been sitting in a car all day, which left our legs weak and our bodies tired. Plus, we were all exhausted from traveling. We barely had any food in our systems (unfortunately, there are no McDonalds in the middle of nowhere). If we fought, we would lose without a doubt.

Before I knew it, I could see the razor sharp teeth that would probably sink into our bodies in a couple of moment's time. The hellhound was bigger than I had expected, and a lot bigger than any other ones I had fought before. It was so close I could practically feel its hot breath on the back of my neck.

The only other dog I had seen as big as this one was Cerberus, the dog that guards the Underworld. He was huge, he had three heads and could rip you apart in a second, but he was actually a pretty good dog. Sometimes when I visited my dad down there, I would end up playing with the friendly hound.

This thing was nothing like the attention-seeking dog I had known to treat as a pet. This thing was vicious, and extremely deadly.

With one swipe of his paw, he would be able to send a full grown man flying for miles.

With one bite, he would be able to completely crush the human body and all 206 bones inside it.

With one growl, he would be able to send even the bravest souls crying for their "mommy".

With one stomp, he would be able to crush this car into a crumpled sheet of metal.

That's why we're running.

Annabeth was praying to her mother, Percy was getting out his weapons, and Jill was biting her lip so hard I saw blood trickling down her chin. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she had curled up into a ball, as if that could protect her from the beast that was currently chasing us.

Without a moment's warning, it had swiped at the car and we were sent tumbling out onto the grassy fields.

Thank the gods we were all wearing out seatbelts, or else we would have been thrown out the windows and killed before the dog even had a chance at us. Landing upside down, we were forced to unbuckle the seatbelts and climb down onto the roof of the car. We opened the doors and crawled out, before the monster had another chance at us.

Everybody grabbed their bags and took out their weapons.

I hadn't realized it, but I must have smashed my hand against something when we were tumbling, because as I grabbed my sword I felt a piercing pain run from my hand up my arm. I was horrified to see it red, bloody, and swollen; but I wasn't about to wimp out and go hide in the car.

As I saw the hellhound running toward us, I thought that may have been a better idea to run and hide after all.

I looked at my friends; everybody looked fine, except for Annabeth. She must have hit her head against the steering wheel as the car flipped, because she had a long gash on her forehead that was slowly bleeding. She just wiped the blood on her sleeve and balanced her dagger in her hand, feeling the familiarity of the weapon she had trusted for so long.

I just had time to get into a good fighting position when I was horrified by the sight of the monster leaping into the air, about to pounce on the 4 little demigods that stood before him.

I was sure we were all dog food when his feet left the ground, and I was even about to start praying to father, when I saw something that astonished me even more than the best jumping through the air.

Because just as it was about to turn us into live kibble, something else stole our attention.

Now, you're probably thinking _"What could possibly steal your attention from a 2 ton beast jumping through the air, about to murder you?" _

The answer?

All I saw was a black blur that came out of absolutely nowhere fly through the air, and collided with the beast, sending both of them crashing into the ground.

**Reviews make me a happy camper! Just kidding, I don't go to camp. But… they do make me happy!**


	14. Nico Meets a Real Live Cowgirl

**Guess who's story just got added to the community "Nico will rule the world"? Minee! Yay! Thank you xxZebraStripessxx for recommending it to the community(:**

**Creo que mi perra es muy molestosa. Se llama Jamie. Ella come mi cena! (la hamburguea y las papas fritas!) Aye! **

**(Sorry, I had the urge to speak in Spanish about my dog and my dinner)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything (except my annoying dog)**

I know I probably should have been terrified.

There was a hellhound and something else viciously attacking each other in the middle of who-knows-where in front of 4 demigods with a trashed car, but I wasn't scared.

Instead, I felt like I was having a serious adrenaline rush. My heart was pounding, my hands were itching to grab my sword, and I felt like letting out a battle cry. I wanted to jump right into that fight and kill both those things. But, using my immense amount of willpower, I just stood there curled my hands into fists.

Percy looked like in his head he was chanting those things on. I understood him; we haven't had much entertainment lately, and this sure was entertaining.

What was the other thing? What idiotic creature would purposely pick a fight with a humungous hellhound, for no reason? And also, where did it _come_ from?

That's when it hit me. No creature, no matter how idiotic, would attack a hellhound for no reason. It _had_ a reason: It was defending us.

And what was the only large, black, furry thing that I knew, that could come out of nowhere?

Well, our dearest beastly friend Mrs. O'Leary, of course!

Now that I knew what it was, I felt stupid for not realizing it earlier; you could see her oversized ears flopping around from a mile away.

And that's when I became scared.

This was Mrs. O'Leary. This was the hellhound that acted like an overweight golden retriever. This was the reason that I sometimes sneak extras at dinnertime so I can feed them to her. This was the beast that licks you until you're soaking wet. This was the creature that whimpers if you call her a "bad dog".

And the other hellhound? He was a vicious, heartless, monstrous, demon that would be glad to rip my beloved dog's head off. And guessing by his size, I don't think he would have a hard time doing it.

But I couldn't let that happen.

So, I did what any rational person would do when watching their "pet" fight an evil and vicious hellhound:

I charged.

Thinking back on it, that wasn't the smartest thing to do.

I could barely tell which one was the one I loved from the one I wanted to kill. And if I mixed the two up? Well, that wouldn't be too good, now would it?

Plus, when I got to where they were fighting, I didn't know what to do. Should I stab? Should I hit? Should I jump? Should I dance?

(Just saying, that last ones not as crazy as you would think. I can't think of a single living thing that wouldn't give all their attention if they saw me "bustin' a move". It would serve as an excellent distraction, don't you agree?)

In the end, I decided not to dance. Instead, I figured out which one was the one I wanted to kill, and slashed at its front leg. I was hoping it would fall over onto it's back and I could very easily stab it into non-existence and that would be that, but instead it just snarled at me at took a swipe with its paw. I had just jumped out of the way in time, or else I would have been sent flying a couple miles back to my dear bird friends at the farm.

I realized that while they were fighting, I was really just an annoying pest trying to get in their way. But that was okay; I was a pretty good distraction. I mostly went for the legs and the stomach; slashing, stabbing, jabbing, and hitting. A couple of times I heard a hideous cry come from the hellhound, and I would almost feel sorry; but then I would think that if I didn't kill it, it would kill Mrs. O'Leary.

So, just as I was about to stab the stomach again, the hellhound saw me and attacked. It raked its paw across my face; its nails piercing my skin and leaving a bloody trail. I let out a surprised gasp, and then fell to my knees. I held my hand up to my face and felt the hot sticky liquid soak my fingers.

From the distance, I heard Annabeth scream out my name, but it sounded like she was miles away. Blood from a gash above my forehead dripped down into my eyes, and my vision turned into a red blur.

For a moment, I was sure death was upon me…

But then I realized that I was just being overdramatic.

It was a couple of cuts on my face, nothing too deep. The blood could be washed away and the wounds would heal quick enough. They may not even leave scars.

I took my sleeve and wiped the blood off my face, then got back on my feet and started towards the fight again. Once again, I could hear Annabeth screaming for me to stop and come back with the group, but that monster just cut up my face and I was _pissed._

I was _not _gonna go sit back down and watch how this turns out. Instead, I did probably the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life: I grabbed onto the hellhound's tail and swung myself up onto its back.

I was doing this all on an adrenaline rush, and I really had no clue what exactly I _was_ doing.

When the monster felt my on his back, he freaked out, flipping around and trying to get me off. For a moment I was reminded of a cowboy on a mechanical bull. I was slightly tempted to shout out "Yee-haw!", but I restrained myself to save myself from further humiliation.

To keep myself from being flung off the monster, I clung onto its coarse fur and tried to ignore how nauseous the rocking was making me.

I grabbed onto the beast's ears, dug my claws into the thick skin, and started pulling. Unfortunately, this didn't have the effect I had hoped for. Instead of being able to use the ears as reins to control the dog (I watch way too many movies), the dog just got even madder and tried harder to get me off it's back.

It was jumping, and spinning, and flipping around; and I was terrified that he would roll over and I would be squished like a bug. But fortunately, it wasn't smart enough to think of doing that. It just thrashed around, attempting to free itself from my grasp.

There was good news and bad news to this situation:

The good news was that I finally had the hellhound's full and undivided attention, meaning it wasn't focusing on Mrs. O'Leary anymore.

The bad news was that the monster was stronger than I had previously imagined, and I was just barely keeping myself from being flown through the air.

My legs clung uselessly to the sides of the dog, and I struggled to keep a grip on its fur. Well, this was not quite how I had imagined saving Mrs. O'Leary from possible doom. But I guess I was still saving her… right?

By this point, I had lost all will to retain my dignity, and I was shamelessly clinging to the beast and praying to every god I knew that my short life didn't come to a horrid end. With my eyes squeezed shut, the only thing I was aware of was how nauseous I was and how holding the hellhound's fur as my lifeline was giving me some pretty painful blisters on my fingers. Ouchie.

_Dear Dionysus, _

_I know you really hate me and I go out of my way to aggravate you every day of my life, but right now-_

I was cut off from my prayer when my fingers slipped from the monster, and I was suddenly hurling through the air.

They say when death is before you, your life flashes before your eyes.

And yes, something was flashing before my eyes.

First, a Big Mac with a large order of fries, and a Coca-Cola.

Next, a Grande Soft Taco with a side of nachos, from the one and only Taco Bell.

After that I saw a Bacon and Cheese Whopper.

Mm… I could feel my arteries clogging already…

Maybe death wouldn't be so bad after-all. Hey, maybe my dream will come true, and they'll build a Taco Bell in the Underworld! That would actually be pretty darn swell.

I thought about what I would order when I got there. I hear being dead tires you out, so I'll have to get something big, and full of saturated fat. What about an-

_Thump!_

I landed unceremoniously on top of Mrs. O'Leary's snout. It was harder than I had imagined; like there were rocks under there or something.

I rubbed my head, which I had hit on my landing.

But unfortunately, Mrs. O'Leary's snout was big, but not big enough to carry a teenage boy; so I started slipping off. I clawed at whatever I could reach, desperately trying to save my own life. If I fell and hit my head again, I would be visiting my father sooner than I had expected.

I silently begged the dog to gently lower its head, delivering my safely to the ground, but no such luck.

I turned my head and looked over to where my friends were standing, but all that was there was our destroyed car. All 3 of them were gone. Did they leave me? Am I here alone? Will I d-

Ow!

Something smacked against my leg, cracking like a whip. Who was hitting me? I tried looking down, but lost my grip for a second and scurried back to my original position.

I felt it again; this time it was higher, reaching my lower back. I got a glimpse of whatever it was this time. It looked tan or brown, and must have been pretty long to reach my all the way up here.

A third time some unknown person threw that thingy, and this time it looped over my head, slipped down my body, squeezed at my waist, and pulled me off the dog.

Falling, I thought of what had happened. There was nobody else there but the 4 of us, and the other 3 were nowhere to be seen. Was whoever's attacking me got them first? Or maybe they really did leave me?

I thought for sure this time I would break my neck and be sent down to daddy dearest, but once again, there's some invisible force that is intent of making sure I survive long enough to see my adult years.

I crashed down, but landed on something relatively soft. Like in those cartoons where they're falling to their doom and suddenly a mattress appears beneath them. Actually, just like that.

I looked to see just what exactly I had landed on, and was surprised to see a car seat sitting under me. A car seat from the truck I was just sitting in 10 minutes ago. How did it get out here? Maybe that force is stronger than I thought…

But there was still the thing that pulled my down. I looked at my waist, and saw a rope tied around it. It honestly looked like a very unfashionable belt. I was embarrassed just wearing it.

But then I saw the belt had the rest of the rope leading somewhere, and it was getting higher as it went on. I followed the rope with my eyes until it reached a pair of small, feminine hands.

Great, my life was just threatened by a girl. What a horrible way to die that would have been…

But when I looked farther up from the hands I saw the oh-so-familiar face of Jill (I don't know her middle name) Mistero. She had a smirk on her face and laugher in her eyes.

I thought back on what just happened, and realized that she had lassoed me to get me down.

_Lassoed _me!

You might as well give me a cowboy hat, get her a pair of leather boots, and we could be characters out of a cheesy old western film. Well, an old western film with demigods and demon hounds.

To try to minimize the amount of embarrassment, I used some of my unlimited humor.

"Hey, princess. How come you never told me you grew up lassoing cattle? Or are you just so unbelievably talented that you can learn things on the spot like that?" for the first time since I've known her, she blushed. Her cheeks turned a rosy color, and she crossed her arms.

"_Shut _up! I used to spend my summers at my uncle's farm in Kentucky." She said defensively.

"I thought that was all a myth. Ya know, cowboys and farmers lassoing sheep and all that jazz."

Jill rolled her eyes and smiled. "Not to my uncle. Thanks to him I know how to play a fiddle, lasso sheep, and I can ride a horse better than any teenage girl I know. He was supposed to teach me how to dance a jig last year, but I had to go to Camp Half-Blood instead; thank the gods."

Wow. I seriously thought they only did those things in movies.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was talking to a real-live cowgirl." I stood up and dusted off my jeans, then bowed in a mocking manner.

For the umpteenth time that day, she rolled her eyes.

"I am _no _cowgirl. I grew up in New York City." Hm, I'm learning all different kinds of interesting things today.

"Like Percy?" I asked.

"Kinda. But we don't like close to each other at all. Actually, I'm pretty sure we live a couple of subway trips and a taxi away." Strange, I just assumed they lived close.

Suddenly I realized something. The whole reason we were here was because of a giant hellhound that was trying to kill us. A giant hellhound that was nowhere to be found. But, sure enough, in the distance Annabeth had her dagger out and was cleaning blood off of it with a big green leaf.

Ah, you can always count on Annabeth to kill any stray monsters running afoot.

After shimmying out of the rope tied around my waist, I turned to Jill.

"Heh… so I guess it was pretty stupid of me to attack the hellhound like that, eh?" she smiled.

"Actually, no. For once you actually did something helpful. Good job."

Translation: Oh my gosh, Nico you are so fantastically amazing and gorgeous and your muscles are the hottest things I've ever seen and I'm so unbelievably in love with you, will you please marry me?

**Yayy! I finally finished this chapter, it took me forever. Review!**


	15. Hellhound Slobber

**So, I was going to thank somebody for doing something… but I forgot. So if I owe you a thanks for whatever reason, tell me in a review and I'll put it in the next author's note(: But better yet, I'll write it in 3 different languages! WOAH! Heehee…**

**Oh! I would like to proudly say that I inspired my dearest friend, Alaina, (who's penname I can't remember) to read Percy Jackson. Yay for mee!**

**Disclaimer- I don't own the book Percy Jackson and the Olympians, well.. actually I **_**do **_**own the book, but I didn't write it. **

So in the past two weeks I fought a group of demigods, survived living in a moldy old motel, got the birds and bees talk from Percy, shadow-traveled across the country, got a riddle stapled to my forehead, figured out where the Greek god of the forge was living, and played rodeo with a hellhound.

What I really need is a vacation. You know, a beach in California, or maybe a beach in Hawaii, or perhaps even a beach in Mexico. I deserved to be spoiled a little, right? Eat tropical foods, bathe in the tropical sun, date tropical girls; all that good stuff.

But right now, I had to figure out how we were supposed to get around when our only source of transportation was destroyed and currently sitting upside down in the middle of nowhere. We couldn't walk for hundreds of miles to our volcano destination, and after how tired I was last time, I am never shadow-traveling again (that's a total lie because when we get back to camp I will once again be too lazy to walk).

I suggested we head down to the nearest farm and steal their car, but Annabeth said that was "illegal" and "rude". Well, big deal; most of the things we do are illegal! (I don't think the police would be very happy if they found out 4 teenagers were visiting all the Starbucks in town and stealing the tip jars)

Meanwhile, Mrs. O'Leary was back to her normal-self; prancing around like an overgrown show dog, and wagging her tail so frequently it just looked like a blur of black. She had gone over and licked Annabeth, who was now completely covered in dog saliva. But she didn't care; I think she was just as happy to see the familiar hound as I was.

Percy was scratching Mrs. O'Leary behind the ears while murmuring words of encouragement to her; telling her what a good dog she was. What a sap.

"So… what are we gonna do?" Percy asked the question we were all thinking. He turned to the girl trying to rub the spit off of herself, "Annabeth? Any bright ideas, oh wise one?"

She smirked, "Well, I was thinking we could wait for a car to come by and then ask if they could give us a ride." She continued rubbing her face to remove the doggy saliva.

I gasped mockingly, "_Hitchhiking! _Why, Annabeth! Isn't that _illegal?"_ she shrugged.

"At this point, there's really no other option. Besides, it's better than stealing somebody's car!"

"Uh, no it's not! If we hitchhike some pervert could pick us up! Or a murderer! Or a perverted murderer!" It's true. Police would find us hidden in a cornfield in the middle of Nebraska, but to identify us they would have to use our dental records, which means I would never be identified since I had never actually been to the dentist…

Annabeth rolled her eyes and turned to her boyfriend. "Percy, your cousin is officially the biggest pessimist I have ever met." Heh, it's probably true.

"Whatever. What about you, Jill? Any ideas?" asked Percy. He waited for an answer, but none came. So, he tried again, "Jill? Do you have any ideas?" Still no answer.

We all looked around, and I realized for the first time that she wasn't with us.

"Where did she go?" I asked, but nobody answered.

Annabeth called out to her sister, "Jill? Where are you?" she cupped her hands around her mouth, which didn't really amplify her voice, but whatever. Who am I to tease a teenage girl in distress?

See? This is just why I said we shouldn't hitchhike. I bet some freaky old perverted murderer snatched her up when we weren't looking. Poor Jill…

But instead of all of us praying by singing and doing an African spiritual dance around a fire, we found her. Such a shame, I was really looking forward to the dance thing. They just look like so much fun in movies.

Percy sighted her first. "There she is!" he yelled, while pointing at a tree. I looked at where his finger was pointing, but all I saw was leaves and a squirrel.

"Oh my gosh! You're right, Percy! She must have been cursed while we weren't watching her by some unknown force, and now she's forced to live in the body of a squirrel for the rest of her life!" I put my hands together and looked down, getting into a praying position. "Dear Artemis, please protect our squirrely little friend from all the dangers that lie ahead of her. She doesn't have any gifts for you, but she can surely teach you how to lasso in exchange for protection, and-" Annabeth wacked the back of my head, "Ouch!"

She rolled her eyes. "Quit being such a drama queen. He's not pointing to the squirrel; he's pointing to the girl sitting in the tree." Sure enough, when I checked again I saw Jill perched on a sturdy looking branch.

"Oh…" I said, feeling stupid.

Annabeth called up at her sister. "Jill! Come down here right now!" I saw Jill stubbornly cross her arms.

"No!" she called back. "I will _not _go near that… that… that _thing!" _she screamed, pointing down.

I pretended to act offended. "Jill! And I thought we were _friends!"_

"Not you, you idiot! That monster! I bet it's just waiting to eat me!" Mrs. O'Leary? I turned around. At that moment, she was sitting down with her head tilted to one side, looking more innocent than ever. Did she seriously think the dog wanted to eat her? That's just nasty.

I didn't know she was scared of hellhounds. Then again, in the car ride she looked like she had just seen a ghost. No… that's not a very good expression. Ghosts aren't really that scary. Sure, they smell bad, send out creepy vibes, and look like transparent zombies, but they're not that bad. Okay, a better expression would be "she looked like she had just seen a 50 foot tall Cyclops carrying a huge mallet that he was planning on using to squish her like a bug". That makes more sense, now doesn't it?

Anyways, she still wouldn't come out of the tree. I even asked her politely, and she refused. It went like this:

"_JILL! GET YOUR LAZY *** OUT OF THAT TREE OR I'LL SUMMON 10 SKELETONS TO DRAG YOU OUT OF IT!" _

"_Uh, no." _

See? She's ruthless! Well I think we should just leave her here, and then come back for her when this is all over. She can wrestle the chipmunks for acorns and steal bird's eggs to eat for breakfast. She'd be perfectly fine.

Sigh, but really this _is _her quest, so I guess we have to take her.

But how do we get her down…

Mwahaha! I have the perfect plan…

….

Okay, that looked better in Disney movies when there's lightening and music and… oh nevermind.

I turned to Annabeth and Percy. "Well guys, I don't think we're gonna get her down." They looked confused for a moment, wondering what I was up to. "She's just too scared of the dog. I mean, there's nothing we can do about it. It's not like we can cure her irrational fear." I sighed, just for dramatic effect.

Jill's face reddened. "I am _not _scared! I just don't want to be torn into a thousand pieces by hellhound teeth, thank you very much!" Hah. She was falling right into my trap. My trap of DOOM! (Once again, it looked better in Disney movies)

"No, no. Jill, you don't have to be embarrassed. I mean, we're all scared of something! For instance, I'm scared of Kronos being resurrected and sending all humans, demigods, and well… everyone else to Tartarus. And you're scared of dogs." She narrowed her eyes and her face turned an even redder color.

Annabeth turned to me, "Nico!" she whispered, "What are you doing?" I ignored her.

"I'm telling you! I'm not scared of that overgrown puppy!" she moved closer to the edge of the branch.

"Oh, really?" I asked, antagonizing her. Just to put the cherry on top, I added "Prove it."

She huffed. "Fine!" Jumping off of the tree branch, she landed on the balls of her feet with one hand on the ground to support her. Then she got up and walked confidently over to Mrs. O'Leary (who's tail was wagging feverishly), turned around to face me, and scratched the dog's head. Mrs. O'Leary, who was overcome with happiness, turned to Jill and dragged her tongue across the poor girl's face.

At this time, Jill let out the most girlish scream I have ever heard.

She looked like she was either gonna start yelling at the dog or at me.

Guess which one she picked.

"Nico di Angelo! I am going to _kill _you!" she screamed.

I turned to Annabeth, who was staring in amazement. "Well, at least I got her out of the tree."

So, I spent the next hour or so being chased by a very angry daughter of Athena, who was covered in hellhound slobber.

Ah, life.

Percy and Annabeth decided that it would be a good idea to walk down the road to the nearest house and ask if they could take some necessary items of survival (you know, blankets, water bottles, peanut butter, only the things we really need) in exchange for money. Not a lot of money, but still money.

So that left the annoyed Jill and the handsome and fashionable Nico together with a very big dog and a very small fire.

"So…" she said, trying to make small talk.

"Yep…"

Can you say _awkward_?

I decided that I would enlighten her with my glorious voice.

"How long have you been going to camp?" I asked.

She started picking at her nails. "I just started going last summer."

Oh. I thought this was her first year. "That's weird, I never noticed you." She rolled her eyes, and I wondered if I had offended her.

"Yeah. Probably 'cause Eric and I-" Eric? Who's Eric? She must have seen my confusion, because she added "Eric from the Apollo cabin and I were practically connected at the hip."

I'd seen Eric before. He looked like a model for Hollister; tall, blonde, and tan.

I was surprised. Jill didn't seem like the 14 and dating kind of girl. "You and Eric? Really?"

She stopped picking at her nails and instead started to braid pieces of her hair. "Unfortunately, yes. I don't know _what_ I was thinking."

Wow. This conversation just went from "awkward" to "extremely awkward".

What was I supposed to say when a girl was talking about her ex-boyfriend? Why doesn't somebody write a book about this and publish it? Nah, I would be too lazy to read it anyway.

"Well… what happened?"

She finished braiding a piece of her, and then started un-doing it. "Rose Martinez. Just because she had bigger b-" seeing the expression on my face, she rephrased, "because she was prettier, I got thrown aside like an old toy." She picked up a twig and began to snap it into tiny pieces.

Rose Martinez was a daughter of Aphrodite. She was pretty and confident and walked like she owned the world.

"Oh, uh, sorry."

This was getting a little too emotional for me, so I stood up and began walking over to where we were going to sleep. It was just a dry area behind a couple of trees, because none of us felt safe lying out in the open. That's where Mrs. O'Leary was currently residing.

Just before I reached the trees I turned around to face Jill, who was ripping apart a leaf while angrily murmuring some unheard words.

"Jill?" I said. She looked over.

Don't say it, Nico.

You're just gonna embarrass yourself.

Keep your mouth shut.

"For the record," _Shut up, shut up, shut up,_ "I think you're prettier than Rose."

Good job, Nico. Way to humiliate yourself.

Trying to hide my embarrassment and stupidity, I turned away quickly and disappeared into the trees.

But not before I saw a small smile appear on her face.

**Yayy! Just saying, this doesn't necessarily mean those 2 are going to be getting together. I just thought of that little scenario and decided to put it in(:**

**Reviews are love!**


	16. Foreign Fights

**So, I would have updated sooner, but my computer was broken! Agh! It was tragic, horribly tragic. And nobody said I needed to thank them, so I put three languages in this chapter instead. (English counts as one of them, heehee). And this chapter isn't really humorous. It's more serious, and actually pretty depressing. But I felt Nico **_**has **_**had a pretty tragic life, so I put in some tragedy. Kinda. Sorta. A little bit. Hope you guys like it(:**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, or Mythomagic cards, but I do own Jill (yay!) and… that's about it.**

The next morning, I woke up and was greeted by warm water hitting my face. I cursed lightly, aggravated that the rain had probably soaked all of our supplies. I was tempted to roll over and pretend I had fallen asleep in the shower (it actually happens quite often, showers are surprisingly comfortable), but I willed myself to get up and try to save my iPod.

Turns out, like usual, I was the last one up. The others had learned the bad consequences that come with waking me up too early, so they usually leave me alone. Thank the gods for that.

Turns out Mrs. O'Leary was actually being pretty helpful with the rain. She was standing up and licking at a large puddle that had formed, while Annabeth and Jill sat underneath her. They were intently discussing something in some foreign language. Probably something extremely boring like American politics of the 1930's or the ever questionable debate of steam cell research.

"Forse si potrebbe usare il cane?" Annabeth said.

Jill didn't seem to like whatever she had said, for she stood up and hit her head on the dog's stomach. She cast a glare up at the lovable hellhound.

"Assolutamente no! Questo è ridicolo! Lo sai che non mi piace." She crossed her arms angrily, and sat back down on the damp grass, slightly inching away from Mrs. O'Leary.

For a moment I thought back to when this Italian Aphrodite girl had come to Camp Half-Blood for a summer.

She was _hot._

She had really sharp features, with tanned skin and deep brown eyes (complimented by mascara, of course) and her brown hair hung down to her hips. The boys went gaga over her. She didn't speak English, so of course some guys took advantage of that (you don't wanna know what the Stoll brothers talked to her about), but she had this really cute accent and—I am so off topic right now. I was just entering my teenage years and this insanely hot foreign girl comes along, you can't blame me for paying a bit of attention to her.

Anyway, she obviously spoke the national language of her country, and I had heard her talk a few times. Which is the reason I know have concluded the fact that the little Athena children are currently having a conversation in Italian.

Well… it was either that, or French… Honestly, it could even be Spanish. Heh... turns out I wasn't quite as sure as I thought I was.

After letting my mind wander to the Aphrodite girl, I had forgotten the whole reason I was thinking about her. That is, until Annabeth started talking again.

"Jill, altra scelta abbiamo?" she put a comforting hand on her sister's shoulder. Jill sat there for a moment, but then sighed and agreed.

"Fine. Whatever." She said, defeat in her voice. She looked up and glared at the dog. But then she looked over and once she saw me, she started yelling in Italian (or something like it).

"Vedi? Ora è sveglio! Probabilmente appena ascoltato la nostra conversazione intero!" This time, I knew she was talking about me. And angrily. That's not a good sign.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Non essere ridicolo. Nico non parla italiano." Hearing your name in some foreign conversation with the word "ridicolo" isn't exactly a good thing.

"Il suo cognome è di Angelo! Egli è, ovviamente italiano, così forse sa parlarlo, anche!" Jill screamed.

Annabeth turned to me. "Well, do you?" Do I what? I didn't follow that conversation at all. Maybe I should have picked up some Italian when I was younger. Should I say "si"? No, that was Spanish. What about—

"Well?" Annabeth asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"Uh…" I could either say "yes" or "no". One was wrong, one was right. Unless it was an opinion thing… Eh, I'll just guess. "Yes?" Jill screamed in frustration, and then started yelling in some other language.

"Sehen Sie? Ich habe dir gesagt er hat!" Whoops. I guess I picked the wrong answer.

Annabeth was still staring at me. "Where did you learn Italian?" she asked, curiously. Learn Italian?

"Uh, I don't know Italian…" I braced myself for another outburst in some foreign language, but none came. Instead, Jill let out a sigh of relief.

"Good." She said, and then began to wring out some clothes of hers that got wet.

A large raindrop came down and hit my eye, momentarily blurring my vision. I cursed under my breath; I had completely forgotten it was raining. Jumping up, I ran over to where my bag was hanging off a branch and snatched it away. Rummaging through it, I was immensely relieved to find my iPod safe and dry. The leaves from the tree had blocked most of the rain. See? I put my backpack in a safe place. I'm much smarter than I get credit for.

Percy, who was trying to figure out if the car would be of any use to us or not, came back about 10 minutes after our little international lesson. Turns out the car was nothing more than a piece of scrap metal. Total junk. Completely worthless. Which left us in the middle of nowhere with no source of transportation, and to make matters worse, it went from a harmless rain shower to a full scale thunder storm.

_Thanks, Zeus. We really appreciate it_, I thought. I was replied with a boom of thunder and a streak of lightening shooting across the sky.

I thought we should stand under a tree for shelter, but apparently that's a big no-no, so we were forced to stand out in the rain.

"Annabeth? When can we start moving?" I asked her. There was no point in just standing here. We needed to cover a lot more ground to reach the volcano, and we were wasting time.

"Not until this storm clears up. Getting electrocuted is a horrible way for a demigod to die." Why? What's the difference between dying from electrocution and dying from a heart attack? Either way, you die.

"Well, isn't dying from being electrocuted better than dying from being brutally murdered? Electrocution is a lot less painful, don't you think?"

Annabeth shrugged. "I mean, wouldn't you want to go heroically? Battling a fierce monster or sacrificing yourself to save friends or loved ones?" I felt my face harden as sorrow washed over me, and unintentionally I glared at Percy.

Annabeth seemed to realize what she had said. "Oh, Nico. I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to bring her up."

Thoughts of Bianca flooded into my head. When she would yell at me to stop babbling about my Mythomagic cards, how she used to hold my hand so we wouldn't get separated, when she would help me with my homework and attempt to make me soup when I got sick (but fail, since she was a horrible cook), when she joined the Hunters and left me alone at Camp Half-Blood with complete strangers, how upset I was when the campers returned from the quest but my sister was nowhere to be found.

I was horrified to feel my eyes heavy with salty tears, and quickly looked down so nobody would see. She was all I had, and she was ripped away from me.

I thought I was done crying about her a long time ago, and yet tears threatened to break loose and flood down my face.

And I remember the worst part wasn't the sorrow.

It wasn't how sad I was that my big sister was gone. It was the fact that she was gone _forever. _That the next time I was sad, she wouldn't be there to wipe away the tears. The next time I was sick, she wouldn't be there to make me disgusting soup and spend hours telling me stories. The next time I was happy she wouldn't be there to smile and laugh with me.

It was the fact that she would never hug me again, she would never ruffle my hair or sit with me as I attempted to do my homework. She would never give me a birthday present or congratulate me on getting a good test grade (which was rare, but it occasionally happened). And worst of all, she would never again say "I love you, Nico".

These unwanted thoughts kept piling up in my head, and before I knew it, tears streamed down my cheeks, disguised as rain drops.

I felt a comforting hand on my arm, and for a moment, I believed it was Bianca. Maybe she was here.

Maybe she was alive.

But I knew that wasn't true, and when I looked up I met Annabeth's gray eyes instead of Bianca's soft brown ones, I was heartbroken.

Angrily, I threw her hand off of me and stormed away.

My life wasn't fair.

I was thrown into this world my sister was thrown out of it, and for that matter, out of my life. I fight for Olympus like everyone else, and yet I'm treated like an outsider. I agree to stay at camp and get tossed into this horrid quest.

The son of _freakin Hades___was standing in the rain with no source of shelter. The King of Ghosts was surviving off trail mix and warm water bottles. I deserved to be spoiled rotten, not living like a hobo.

And I was _so _done with it.

Gathering up every little ounce of strength I had, I marched over to a tree and waited for lightening to strike.

"Uh, Nico? What are you doing?" asked Percy. I ignored him.

Annabeth looked concerned. "Nico? I'm sorry! I didn't mean to upset you." When I didn't answer her either, she turned to Jill and sighed. She began to take a step forward and follow me, but rethought it and stepped back.

"Nico?" Jill asked. I stayed quiet. When she spoke again, her voice had been filled with concern, like Annabeth's had been previously. "Nico? Are you alright?"

But the moment I had been waiting for came. To my right, lightening had struck, sending a flash of light over the trees. The moment a shadow appeared next to the tree I was standing by, I took my chance and jumped through it. I had just heard Jill and Annabeth cry out "Nico!" when I had vanished into the darkness.

I wasn't sure where I was going. And quite frankly, I didn't care. I could end up in the middle of the Grand Canyon, or 100 miles away from the coast in the Pacific Ocean, or even the South Pole. Anywhere was better than here. I just let my mind wander and wherever I ended up, I ended up.

The familiar darkness engulfed me. I took comfort in the feeling that I was alone.

Completely alone.

Nobody to feel sorry for me.

Nobody to treat me like garbage.

Nobody to mention my dead sister.

When the portal ended, I was thrown forward and landed on a hard, cold floor. My knees had taken the fall, and I could practically feel the bruises forming. But I didn't care. I was away from the others, safe and sound in a nice dry place. And if I was lucky, I would be alone.

But we all know I'm not lucky.

"Nico?" I heard a familiar voice call. I didn't bother looking up. "I would like an explanation of why you just appeared in my palace and the reason you look like you just went swimming in the River Styx."

And when I dared to look up, I was standing in front of Hades' throne.

**Anddd…. End scene. **

**Heehee just kidding. **

**Review! I worked hard on this one!**


	17. Daddy Dearest

**I really hate this chapter. Defiantly my worst one yet. But you'll have to manage; I'm all stressed out about finals and I've been studying like constantly, but I only have 2 more left! Then, when schools over, my chapters will defiantly be up more frequently. Until I go away, which I'll talk about later.**

You see, I'm allowed to be all tough and brave and devilishly handsome because I'm the son of Hades.

The problem in this situation was compared to Hades himself, I was just a 14 year old boy with hair that's too long and a piece of metal I call a sword.

So with wet tears disguised as raindrops forming a path down my face, I stood up to face my father.

At first I was too bummed out to address him formally, but I figured I would be even more upset if he turned me into a pile of bones, so I did the proper thing.

Bowing my head, I spoke to my father for the first time in a year or two. "Lord Hades. I apologize for the sudden appearance."

See? This isn't normal. Normal people don't address their fathers as "Lord".

Normal people don't apologize for visiting their "daddy".

Normal people don't bow down to their old man.

Then again, normal people's fathers aren't usually the god of the underworld, so I guess I'll have to manage.

When I looked up again, Hades was staring down at me with little emotion in his face. Sometimes I forget that he only has two moods: angry, and uninterested.

Currently, he was uninterested (which was better than the other option).

When we made eye contact, he addressed me. "Nico di Angelo. I believe you still haven't answered my question."

I sighed, wondering how I was going to explain this.

What was I going to say? That somebody hurt my feelings and made me cry? He already though I was nothing but a child, that would just make it ten times worse.

When I looked at my father again, I learned I was wrong about his emotions. Turns out he had three moods: angry, uninterested, and impatient.

Guess which one he was now.

"Do you think, as the god of the underworld, I have nothing better to do than wait for you to come up with an answer? There was just a breakout of influenza in Africa, and spirits are flooding in like crazy. I expect your response immediately." Although his voice wasn't raised once, it had an icy feel to it that formed goose bumps up my arms.

"S-sorry, sir." After crying, I couldn't stop the stutter that rose up my throat. "I had some…" I struggled for the right word, "mishaps with my friends, and after shadow-traveling I, uh, ended up here."

Hades nodded, seeming genuinely bored. As I looked around, I noticed that, fortunately, Persephone was absent from her throne. Since it was summer, she would be in Zeus' kingdom with Demeter (who keeps sending boxes of cereal to my cabin at Camp Half-Blood. And it's not even the good sugary stuff; it's all that "wheat flakes" and "full of fiber grains" junk that tastes like cardboard).

"Perseus Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Jillian Mistero, I believe. Am I correct?" I looked up, startled. How did he know their names?

I guess I appeared surprised, because he rolled his eyes, looking freakishly like a pair of Athena girls I know.

"Nico, I'm your father. Do you honestly think I just let you live your life without checking up on you at all?"

What did he mean "checking up on me"? I didn't see him suspiciously hiding behind any bushes, or peeking through our window when we were at that nasty motel.

For a moment, I forgot about my sorrow long enough to curse my stupidity.

This was _Hades _we were talking about.

Hades, as in the extremely powerful god. He doesn't need to use a lamppost as cover, or duck behind buildings; if he didn't want us to see him, he wouldn't be seen. Simple as that.

Plus, I forgot about his Helm of Darkness, which was all-in-all pretty idiotic of me.

While I was just standing there, I realized something:

This was getting pretty awkward.

I guess that's what happens when you and your father meet for the first time in a year, and you don't know what to say.

"So…" I stated, but once the word came out of my mouth I realized just how stupid I sounded, and wished I could have taken it back.

"So you and the daughter of Athena are in a relationship?" he asked.

If I was drinking something, it would have come flying out of my mouth.

If I was holding a brick, I would have dropped it on my foot.

If I was eating something, I would have choked on it and possibly suffocated.

But since I wasn't doing any of those things, I just yelled out "What!"

"You and Jillian." He stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Uh, no we're not." Me? And Jill? Ha! I'm much too good-looking for her.

Hades looked confused. "You told her you thought she was pretty."

"So? I was just being nice."

I hadn't yet processed the fact that Hades was there last night when I thought it was just Jill and I. If I had, my face would have looked like a tomato. Although, it would have been a very gorgeous tomato.

"Bah! Nico, you don't just go and tell a girl she's pretty, and then walk away!" he shouted. I winced at the volume of his voice.

"Uhm… I'm sorry?" What else was I supposed to say? That I'd go and take it back; tell her I didn't mean it, or my eye sight wasn't very good?

Hades sighed, "You shouldn't be saying 'sorry' to me. Did you ever think about this girl? That if you lead her to believe you're in love wi-"

"Woah, woah, woah. Hold up; who ever said I was _in love _with her!" he shot me a glare for interrupting, and I stepped back cautiously.

"_As I was saying_," he started, "If you hurt her, Athena will surely turn you into a field mouse and send some of her precious owls after you. Do you really want to spend your last few moments in the form of furry vermin, being torn apart by dozens of vicious talons?" I cringed at the thought, and suddenly felt nauseous-ness disrupt my stomach.

"Well?" Hades asked, "Do you?"

"N-no." I coughed twice, clearing my throat. "I mean, no, father."

He sighed.

"Come here, Nico." Hades stood up and walked over to a wall; his long robe trailing behind him as he stepped.

I followed him over to the wall, and waited for him to say something.

But he was silent.

His eyes were closed, and he was just leaning up against the wall, almost looking like he was sleeping.

Do gods even have to sleep?

"Uh… that's a, um, nice wall you got there." I said, trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

He ignored me.

I shifted my weight from foot to foot, as I waited for something to happen. Finally, Hades stood up straight and faced the wall. I turned to look at it, too.

And suddenly, an image started to appear on the wall; creating the illusion we were standing in front of a window, watching the rain fall heavily in the middle of some forest.

I knew what he was showing me before he told me.

"These are your friends, waiting where you left them."

I saw Annabeth leaning against a tree, hitting the back of her head on the wood repeatedly. Percy's hand was on her shoulder, in a comforting matter. She was saying something that I couldn't quite make out, so I listened more closely.

"I'm so stupid."

"Annabeth, you're a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them." said Percy, but she wasn't convinced.

"Yes it is. I was too ignorant to think about what I was saying before it came out of my mouth; and now poor Nico is out who-knows-where, all by himself, upset because of me." She continued to bang her head on the tree trunk.

I turned to Hades, "Is this an Iris message?" Because, ya know, it may startle them to suddenly see Hades standing there, in the middle of a rainstorm.

"No, they have no idea that we're here, in case you were wondering. They're blind to us."

I had to say, that was pretty cool. "How did you do that?"

For the umpteenth time that day, he sighed. "Nico, I'm Hades. I'm one of the most powerful gods in the world; I can control everything that's dead. I have my own kingdom, I _own _the Underworld. I can do a lot of things that I don't have to explain to my son."

So, I guess he wasn't gonna tell me how he did it…

He turned back to the image, and I followed his example.

The picture moved, so now instead of focusing on Percy and Annabeth, it showed Jill sitting against a tree just a couple of feet away, staring intently at the volcano map.

Hades pointed to her picture. "See her?" I nodded, "Is she worth dying for? Is she so pretty that you would risk getting turned into a mouse?"

"Honestly, nobody's attractive enough for me to give up my strikingly handsome looks."

At this, daddy dearest turned to me with a completely serious face. At first I thought he was mad at me, but then he let out a light laugh. "Well, that's one thing you inherited from me."

I smiled.

Having inherited something from a god was a high compliment; even if in this case it was being an itty-bitty conceited.

In the image, Jill spoke.

"Where do you think he went?" she asked.

Annabeth turned to her and shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe he went back to camp."

"Why don't we Iris message Chiron to see if he's there?" After she asked, she started searching her pockets for a drachma.

Percy stopped her. "No, we don't have to. Nico wouldn't go back to camp; he hates it there."

She looked at him, confused. "Well then don't you think we should go looking for him? It's dangerous for a half-blood to be out there alone; especially a child of Hades!" she threw her hands up in the air dramatically and stood to face Percy.

"Jill, don't worry. Nico's not a kid; he can take care of himself. I'm sure wherever he is, he's fine. The best thing we can do is wait here for him to come back. He just needs a little time to cool off." Percy said, trying to calm her down.

"What if he's hurt? What if he ran into some monsters? What if he's too weak to shadow-travel back?"

Percy put his hands up, as if that would stop her from asking any more questions. "Woah, woah, calm down, Miss Optimistic. Do you always jump to conclusions?"

She narrowed her eyes, made an irritated noise in the back of her throat, and stalked off. "If you aren't going to go find him, I will." And with those last words, the image faded and I was left staring at a wall.

"Quite a temper, that one has. It would be best to steer away from her." My father said, nodding as he spoke.

But really, I was kinda, sorta, a little bit happy. Not because she thought I couldn't defend myself; but because she cared enough to go search for me when Percy and Annabeth just waited for me to come back. Because if it was her missing, I would probably have just sat there and started carving my name into a tree. I silently promised myself I would try to act my best around her, just for caring.

I hadn't noticed I was still staring at a blank wall while Hades had moved back to his throne until I heard him speak.

"Well, I guess you had better get back to your friends." I nodded.

Percy was right; I had just needed to cool off. I felt much better now. Maybe it was because while I had been missing one member of my family, I visited another. Because Hades really was my only family left.

And for the first time in my life, I felt sorry for him.

The almighty Hades.

Forced to spend eternity surrounded by the dead, mournful spirits. You could practically feel the sadness in the air, and no matter where you went you were haunted by the whispers of the ghosts. They begged you to free them, to send them back to their loved ones on Earth. They followed you around and hid in the shadows, trying to convince you it was a mistake; that they weren't meant to be there. And no matter how long they cried, and how much they pleaded, you couldn't do anything about it.

For a moment, I even took pity on myself, because I lived half the life he did. I had to suffer the same things, but at least that wasn't my whole life. And at the end of it, I would escape and finally be in total peace.

"Goodbye, father. Thanks for the, uh, talk." I started to walk towards a shadow in the corner of the room. I was just starting to dry, but the rain would soon soak me again. I put up the hood on my sweatshirt that I had forgotten was there.

"One more thing, Nico."

I turned to look at him. He looked so calm in his throne that it was almost eerie.

"Remember, a person's mind can very easily be tricked."

"Wha-" I started, but with a flick of his wrist I was sent back to the rainy land before I even stepped into the shadow.

I landed right in front of Jill, who looked relieved to see me. She led me back to the others, and we continued our journey to find Hephaestus. But all through the night, my father's voice haunted me.

_A person's mind can very easily be tricked._


	18. Billy the Pedophile

_**For some reason, this uploaded in italics and I really don't know why. So in case you were wondering, it's not a flashback, it's just messed up. Sorry about that.**_

_**Got a secret, can you keep it? Swear this one you'll save! Better lock it in your pocket; taking this one to the grave. Who else watches Pretty Little Liars? There's only 3 episodes and I'm already obsessed. Gah! You gotta love it. **_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, Oregon (obviously), Station wagons, A Fair Lady of the Plains, Scooby Doo, or anything else.**_

_When Annabeth finally realized we were out of options, she let us try to convince an old farmer to "borrow" his car. _

_Fortunately, he let us. After we spent 10 minutes explaining to him what a car _was_ ("No, it doesn't fly." "Can it milk cows?" "No, it just drives around." "And lays eggs?") he finally pointed to the direction of a small metal garage next to his barn. _

_Unfortunately, it looked like his "car" was made the same year I was born. _

_Opening the metal doors created a sickening grinding sound, like nails on a chalkboard. We all covered our ears as Percy desperately tried to yank them open. After what seemed like hours (but was probably only a minute or so), the rusted old hinges gave up and both doors fell to the ground, leaving a clear view of the automobile that sat inside._

_Well, it wasn't actually a clear view. Quite the opposite, really. 20 years of dust had piled up in there, and it yearned to escape from the garage; flying up in the air like a sandstorm. It blew into our eyes and noses, and we all coughed and swatted at it, trying to clear the musty dirt away from our faces._

_I don't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing when I was able to see again. _

_The car that was parked in the garage was one of those nasty old station wagons; the kind with the fake wood on both sides. It looked like it had once been painted a bright cherry red color, but the years were not in its favor. It was faded, and rust bubbled up under the paint, causing the color to peel away exposing the reddish rust underneath. _

"_Ain't she a beauty?" asked a voice that suddenly appeared behind us. Somebody clamped a hand on my shoulder, and I whirled around to the freaky old man. _

"_Uhm… yeah. A real nice ride you got here…" said Annabeth, referring to the prehistoric car. _

"_Why, thank ya missy!" When he smiled, you could see the dark gaps in his mouth where teeth used to be. On a creepy scale from 1 to 10, he was defiantly a 15. _

_Señor Creep tossed Percy the car keys and he hopped into the driver's seat._

"_Shot gun!" I called out, because I really didn't want to know what was in the back seat. I opened the car door, and was horrified to watch two rats scamper out of the car and run past my feet. Maybe the back seat was better after all…_

_It was just Jill and Annabeth with the freakish old man, and the sisters were looking eager to escape from him and get in the car. But being the boring polite people they were, they stuck around._

"_I can't thank you enough, Mister…." Since his name was unknown, she waited for him to fill it in._

"_Oh no, sweetheart. You can call me Billy." Neither of the girls looked like they were too fond of that idea, but they didn't protest._

"_Well, uh, Billy. Like my sister was saying, we are just _so_ grateful that you're helping us. But we really need to get going. Our, uhm, Aunt Rosie is waiting for us." said Jill. She sounded like he was about to pounce on her any minute; she was slowly scooting backwards toward the car._

"_No, girlies. It was my pleasure. And really, you're both free to come back any time. Ya know, an old man like me gets so lonely. I could really use some company…" he winked._

_Both girls looked too stunned to move, but finally Jill screamed "SEXUAL PREDATOR!" and she ran back to the car and jumped in the backseat, Annabeth following her. Percy turned on the engine, and with a horrible spluttering sound the car drove out of the garage desperately trying to escape the nasty old grandpa._

_When I looked into the back, both girls were paler than usual and clutching the seat. I didn't know if it was because of their little encounter with the pedophile hillbilly, or because this car drove like there was a pair of sneakers stuck in the engine. _

_Once we were driving for a couple of minutes, back to where we left Mrs. O'Leary ripping up some tree, I turned back to face the girls._

"_Sexual predator?" I asked. I had to admit, it was pretty funny. Out of all the things to say in that situation, out of the extremely large dictionary she had built into her head, those were the words she picked. _

_She blushed. "Shut up! What was I supposed to say? _Oh, hey. You're really creepy and stuff and I think you may kidnap me so I'm gonna run away now. See ya later._ Would that have made you happy, Nico? Huh?"_

"_Hm… make it sound a little smarter. Ya know, more Athena-ish." She sighed and rolled her eyes, which I had kind of come to believe was her signature expression._

"_Alright, _The small amount of distance that lies between us and the current position that you are standing in are activating my Sympathetic nerves and my body is producing more adrenaline than normal, causing my defense instincts to kick in from the fear you might abduct me._ Better, Nico?" she asked._

_Wow. The amount of words in that sentence that I didn't understand is overwhelming. _

"_Yes, Jill. Much better actually."_

"_Anything to please you." She remarked._

_I smiled and turned to sit straight again. Apparently along the way Mrs. O'Leary had spotted us driving by, and was currently trotting alongside; easily keeping up with the car without even trying. _

"_So, what's next?" asked Percy. He looked like he was trying his best to keep this ride a smooth one, but the car just wasn't agreeing with him. Every minute or so we would hit a small bump in the road and the car would go airborne for a second. I was shocked that it hadn't broken down yet, but I'm sure it would happen eventually. _

"_It's Jill's call. She's the head of this quest, remember?" said Annabeth. She turned to Jill, who nodded._

"_Well, the first thing we need to do is figure out where we are. Nico, check the glove box. If we're lucky, which we never are, there may be a map in there."_

_I nodded, and reached for the dusty old thing, kinda scared of what may be hiding in there. I grabbed the handle and pulled, but it was locked. Percy, who was watching (he really should have been watching the road; not me trying to open a glove box) called out "No such luck; it's locked. Maybe he left the key in the car somewhere. Girls, check the back seat."_

_Annabeth sighed. "Percy, you have the key in the ignition. Just pull over and unlock it." Percy sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as a blush crept up his cheeks. _

"_Oh, uh, yeah. One sec." But before he had a chance to turn off the engine I had taken out my sword and broke open the compartment. Just like when the garage was opened, dust flew out and filled the air. Percy coughed, and the car began to swerve, but we opened the windows and soon the air was pure again. Well, pure-ish._

_I rummaged through the box, desperately searching for a state or country map, but the only thing in it was dozens of those old fashioned snapshots. Each one was labeled, and after seeing them the old man went from a 15 on the creepy scale to a definite 30. Why, you ask?_

_Because every picture showed a small, orange, tabby._

_Tabby, as in a cat._

_Some had labels like "_Cutie Kitty"_, while others said "_Little Baby Ate My Trousers_" (It was a pretty odd picture). _

_Jill and Annabeth, who were peaking over my shoulder, both simultaneously said "What the Hades…?"_

"_I really have no idea. Turns out the 'sexual predator' was even weirder than we thought." I flipped through some of the photos. One was of the cat holding a dead squirrel in its mouth. The caption read "_Kitty Cat Brought Home a Snack!"_ Um, ew. _

_I passed the pictures to the back for the girls to see, and then searched the glove box again for a map. All of the papers and junk were so covered in dust and yellowed from age that it was hard to tell whether I was looking at an old drive-in movie ticket or a brochure for a landscaping company. _

"_I don't think there's any map in here…" I mumbled. _

_I heard Annabeth say "No, Nico. It's fine, we-"_

"_Hm… I think this is a Chinese take-out menu…"_

"_That's great, but-"_

"_Found one! Oh, wait, nevermind. It's just an old tissue. What's that on it? Oh, _nasty_."_

"_Nico!" Annabeth yelled._

"_Jeez, what?" I turned. "I'm kinda in the middle of something right now, can it wait?"_

"_Stop interrupting me and look out your damn window!" she shouted. Touchy, touchy._

_I turned around and just glimpsed at the sign before our car passed it. It read,_

Three Sisters

Lane County, OR

15 miles

"_Well, that's convenient!" I said. Now we don't even need a map. Plus, we were exceptionally close._

_Annabeth looked suspicious. "Yeah, really convenient. Maybe a little too convenient…" _

"_Oh, quit being so paranoid and be grateful that for once in our lives, luck is on our side." I said. _

_Jill looked unsure. "I don't know; I'm with Annabeth on this one. The place we're looking for just mysteriously pops up right in front of us. I don't even think we could have driven as far as Oregon. It seems like a trick to me." And for the thousandth time, my father's words popped into my head. _

A persons mind can very easily be tricked.

_It seemed like an appropriate time for that advice to come in handy. _

"_Maybe, but we have to try. Why don't we check it out, and if anything looks suspicious we bail. Okay?" suggested Percy. We all nodded._

_After a couple of minutes of silence, Percy suggested we turned on the radio. Immediately, western music blasted out of the speakers._

"There was a fair lady who lived on the plains,  
She helped me herd cattle through hard stormy rains,  
She helped me one season all through the roundup-"

_We all groaned, and Percy repeatedly clicked buttons, hoping to change the channel._

"_Why doesn't this thing work!" he shouted in frustration, and began hitting the dashboard as if that would make it better. _

"We was goin' down the canyon in the spring one year,  
To camp there a season with a herd of wild steers;  
The Injuns charged on us at the dead hour of the night,  
We rose from our slumber the battle for to fight.  
Mid lightnin' an' thunder an' the downpour of rain,  
It's in come a bullet an' dashed out her brains!"

_It continued blaring._

"_This is _horrible_!" somebody shouted from the backseat. "Dashed out her brains? What kind of music is this!" _

_Finally, when I thought my eardrums were about to commit suicide, Annabeth reached up and pressed the eject button. A small tape popped out, and the music was suddenly cut off._

"_Oh thank the gods." I muttered. _

"_Heh… sorry, guys…" apologized Percy. Needless to say, we rode the rest of the way in silence. _

_After about a half hour or so, we reached the three mountains. Tourists were walking around and taking pictures of their friends and family, while some hikers checked their backpacks to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything._

_To be honest, I was expecting some godly energy that radiated through the air and led us straight to Hephaestus, but I was wrong. I never would have guessed a god was currently residing in there, and even now I doubted it. It was just so… normal._

"_So, I guess this is it." said Annabeth. _

"_Yep…" mumbled Jill. She seemed kinda nervous, and I realized this was her first quest. Of course she was nervous._

_We told Mrs. O'Leary to stay with the car, and let her dig ditches in the soil to keep her entertained. We didn't know how long we would take, so we just had to hope that she would listen and wouldn't come looking for us. _

_So together we began walking up to the Middle Sister, hoping for some kind of sign that said _Hey, guys! Over here! This is the entrance to Hephaestus' workshop! Just ring the doorbell before entering!

_But there was nothing. No door, no cave opening, nothing that would allow us in. After about an hour of searching, we all slumped down on a rock._

"_This is stupid." I said, getting everyone's attention. "Why are we going to a god if all he's going to do is possibly murder us? For the god's sake, we can't even get in! I'd rather have taken my chances with Billy." _

"_Why, hello there, Mr. Optimistic." Jill said sarcastically. "We're going to get in. He wouldn't have made us come all this way just to be locked out of his mountain." She began to pace, which she does when she's thinking. "Now, let's see… If I was the god Hephaestus, how would I let us in… Oh! Maybe he-" she tripped over a crumpled piece of paper on the ground. "Ow!"_

_She sat down on a flat rock and began to inspect her injury, which was a skinned knee. "Stupid litterbugs…" Jill picked up the paper and was about to throw it, when she thought better of it. Her eyes sparkled, like she just got a really great idea, and she unfolded the piece of paper with a wide grin on her face._

_When she was done reading it, she held it out to see. I read it. There were just two words on it, scrawled across the paper largely. The sides of the crumpled mess were burnt off, and there was a hole in the middle that looked like it was created when the paper caught fire and somebody blew it out._

_The note said, _

SO CLOSE.

-H

_Jill practically exploded with excitement. "It's here! It's here!" she squeeled._

_She began moving rocks and looking under bushes; anything that would lead us into the mountain. We all just watched her for 10 minutes, as she limped around with a bloody leg in search of a path to the god who wanted to kill her. Finally, she sighed and leaned against the wall._

"_I just don't understand where it- woah!" she yelled, as the solid rock wall behind her began to turn. For a moment, I had a flashback to watching Scooby-Doo with Bianca, and I expected somebody to call out "Jeepers!"_

_We all watched, shocked, as a section of the rock about the size of a door turned until there was a clear entranceway into the mountain. I swear, Jill could have died of delight. She sprinted into the corridor without even looking first, and Annabeth ran after her yelling "Wait! Stop!" _

_Percy and I shared a glance, shrugged, and followed after them. He uncapped Riptide, and the metal illuminated the passageway. Mine just would have made the hallway even darker. _

_From father ahead, you could hear the footsteps of Jill and Annabeth running, and if you listened closely you could faintly make out Annabeth yelling for her younger sister to slow down._

_The walls were made of rough and bumpy rock, and every once in a while you would see a crystal glint as Riptide shone on it. It seemed like we were in a cave, and we probably were. Soon the footsteps faded out, and Percy and I ran to catch up, in fear we would get separated from the others._

"_Annabeth?" shouted Percy. There was no response. We just went faster and faster, until it seemed like we had been running for hours in an endless maze._

_Finally, there were glimpses of blonde hair and we saw the sisters, standing with their backs to a wall. Both girls looked out of breath; their chests heaving in rhythm. _

"_Hey, are you guys oka-" I was cut off by the sound of crashing, and I turned around in time to see boulders falling in the hallway; cutting off the only exit available. _

_And I could swear I felt somebody's breath on the back of my neck._


	19. The God of Plans?

**Dear readers,**

**I won't be able to update for the next three weeks, since I have been forced to flee the country. Because apparently, the government doesn't like it when you sneak into the White House and try to play basketball with Obama. Anyways, I will be far, far away in a foreign country and will have no way to communicate with civilization, much less update. Don't try to contact me; it's much too dangerous.**

**-BrightBlueConverse.**

**HA! Just kidding! But seriously, I won't be able to update for the next month or so. I'll be traveling with People to People to a certain island that also happens to be a country, and is the home to many cute kangaroos. Huzzah! Anyways, I really wanted to update before I left (tomorrow) so I just wrote this. Sorry if it seems a little rushed, but it really was rushed, heehee. So please don't leave any reviews saying "You haven't updated in forever!" or send me any PM's about the lack of new chapters, because I won't even receive them until I get back home. Love you all!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, sadly. **

I spun around, and took a step back in surprise. There was nobody behind me, but my face was inches away from a tall rock wall that hadn't been there seconds before. Solid walls don't just magically appear out of nowhere; the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, knowing I had suddenly been thrown into a very dangerous situation with no way to escape.

"You have got to be kidding me!" shouted Percy as he banged his fists against the rock wall. He threw himself at it, in hopes that it would suddenly give and the entrance would be opened again. But unfortunately, taking a dip in the River Styx doesn't grant you with superhuman strength. If it did, I totally would have done that a long time ago.

It was cold, it was dark, it was nasty, and we were trapped. For once I knew how Persephone felt and for a moment I began to feel bad for her; but then I remembered that one time she turned me into a dandelion. Suddenly, I decided she was exactly where she deserved to be.

All previous light leaking in from the tunnel opening was lost, and we were stuck in the pitch black. We all had to rely on our other senses, since our sight was useless. I felt around for a wall to lean on, and my fingers brushed someone else's by accident.

"Oh, uh, sorry." I mumbled, then moved my hand and searched in the other direction.

I heard a faint "S'ok" from my previous location, and continued walking around, searching for some kind of exit.

"Oh, this is bad. This is _really _bad." said the always optimistic Annabeth Chase.

"Oh, really? Because I thought being trapped in a tunnel in a mountain near some god, who by the way wants us all dead, was totally fine." I replied. I swear I could feel her rolling her eyes from across the tunnel.

"No, Nico. You don't understand; we can't just keep wandering around here looking for an exit and waiting for somebody to rescue us. There's four people locked in a confined area with a limited amount of oxygen. And hate to break it to ya, but we're gonna run out, and we're gonna run out fast." I heard a nervous gulp from my right, and I had to agree with them. That was some seriously suck-ish news.

"So, what are we going to do?" Percy asked. As he was waiting for a response, I heard faint shuffling from far ahead in the tunnel; it almost sounded like someone's feet dragging across the floor as they walked. As I listened it got quieter and quieter, as if something was running, or walking, away from us.

It wasn't just me who heard it, either. "Well," started Jill, "that new wall that just happened to appear was no coincidence. There has to be someone, or something, else in here. So to find them, we follow that." And she took off into the tunnel, with the three of us jogging behind her to catch up with her fast pace.

As we explored the tunnel, shouting "Hey! Come back!", I had a sense that I was in a horror movie. The four teenagers – two of them happen to be dating – running through a dark maze with no way to escape and a limited amount of time to get out. There was most likely someone waiting for us at the end of the tunnel, and I seriously didn't like the idea of running right into someone's trap, which we had already done with coming into the cave-ish thingy and we were probably about to do again. With a chill I realized in horror movies the most attractive one always dies first… I decided I had better be extra cautious.

"There's a light up ahead!" shouted Percy. I looked up and sure enough, there was a small yellow glow far in the distance. We all picked up our pace, hoping that would lead us to something besides this horrid tunnel. As we ran toward it, the light seemed to get dimmer and dimmer; and once we had almost arrived to where it should have been, it extinguished itself completely.

We all abruptly stopped ourselves, and somebody cursed loudly and kicked the ground in frustration, which sent dust flying up into the air. "Why are our lives so horrible?" I heard someone else mumble under their breath. I shrugged, even though I knew they couldn't see me.

After a moment of cursing and sulking, we continued walking again. It seemed like we'd been in there for hours, but I knew that wasn't accurate. We'd been walking for forty minutes at the highest, and we were already exhausted. Our minds weren't used to relying on only hearing, feeling, and instinct to get around. We should really have a walking-though-a-dark-and-creepy-tunnel class back at camp; it would be much more useful then canoe riding.

"I feel like I'm playing Marco Polo." said a feminine voice next to me. She paused, like she was deciding something, and then shouted "Marco!"

"Jill, shut up!" said another voice. Unless Percy's voice suddenly became quite a few octaves higher, it was Annabeth speaking. I heard a whispered apology from Jill, and we all kept walking.

Twenty more minutes of silence passed, and we all began to grow anxious. Questions began to run through my mind:

What exactly did Hephaestus have planned for us?

Why did he want Jill in the first place?

Why is Athena mad at him?

How much longer will we be trapped in here?

Why was there a fake light in the tunnel?

Why are we even _in_ this tunnel?

Is Mrs. O'Leary harassing innocent pedestrians?

Does anyone else really need to pee?

More questions like these bothered me until I heard an _oof! _from next to me. I stopped walking, and turned towards the sound.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Ow. I walked into a wall. Apparently, the tunnel ends here." replied my genius cousin. I put my hand out in front of me and felt a cold, hard surface. Yep. That was it; we had reached the end of the tunnel and we hadn't found anything.

"Wait," said someone, "it's not just a wall. There's a door!" they shouted. Somebody began to bang on it and the sound echoed throughout the long tunnel, sending chills up my spine. We all began to desperately grab at the door, searching for a handle or doorknob. Finally, someone yelled "A ha!" and the door was yanked open, revealing a large and circular cave.

We hesitantly walked in, hoping that the door wouldn't slam shut behind us.

Which it of course did.

"Again? Seriously?" I heard Percy mutter.

"Finally, you're here! Took you long enough." said a masculine voice that didn't belong to Percy, and unless I'm losing my mind, it didn't belong to me either. I heard a series of metal scratching their holders and everybody took their weapons out in defense.

"Who's there?" a girl, who I think was Annabeth, said.

The voice didn't answer her question. He just said, "Don't you know it's rude to keep people waiting?"

"Show yourself!" shouted another girl, most likely Jill.

"Oh, dear! You're right!" said the voice. There was a snap of their fingers, and suddenly the room was illuminated by dozens of lanterns and candles.

Standing in front of us was a middle aged man with an overgrown beard and long greasy hair. He was dressed in tattered jeans and an old stained t-shirt, and he reeked of cigarettes. Basically, he was the kind of guy you would see walking around New York City asking for spare change.

My eyes burned at the sudden light, and I had to shield my face right after I got a glimpse of the man and our surroundings.

"Who are you? And where's Hephaestus?" shouted Percy.

"Ha! You foolish demigods! Hephaestus has nothing to do with this! In fact, he doesn't even know this is going on! It was all a big, genius, well thought out plan! I have tricked you! Deceived you! And now, surely, you know exactly who I am!" He threw his hands up dramatically and looked around like he was waiting for one of us to gasp in surprise and shout out his name, but we all just looked at him blankly.

Percy glanced over at Annabeth, waiting for the answer to come shooting out of her mouth. But all she said was, "I really have no idea." Then he turned to Jill, who shrugged.

"Uhm… the god of plans?" she asked uncertainly. His face angered, and he began to stomp his foot.

"No, no, no! That's exactly my point! All you demigods are so concerned about minor gods that you totally forgot about us! And if you had us on your side during that war, losing to Kronos wouldn't even be a concern!" his face had turned bright red during his rant, and he continued stomping his right foot in anger.

"Are you even going to tell us who you are or are you just gonna continue having a temper tantrum?" I asked. He glared at me.

"I am Dolos; the spirit of trickery, deception, craftiness, and treachery!"

"Interesting, really. I'm quite fascinated. But may I ask what the point of being here is? We don't really have anything to do with this; we can't help you." said Jill. And she was totally and completely right.

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong, young lady. You can help me plenty; all of you. You see, it's really quite simple. The gods try to ignore us spirits, they push us aside focus on their horribly annoying offspring. But let's see them ignore me when I kill off 4 of their precious children. So, I tricked little Jill here into thinking Hephaestus had summoned her, and then once you were on the quest I sent Nico a fake dream. Oh, it was really quite brilliant of me. So-" I cut him off, suddenly very aware of my full bladder and the lack of a near restroom.

"Sorry to interrupt your little speech, but do you have a bathroom I could use? Here's a tip: never drink four water bottles before taking a little exploration through a mountain."

He turned to face me, and if looks could kill I be taking a long vacation to my dad's.

**If you didn't read the A/N on top, please do. It's important. Talk to you guys in a month!**


	20. Bean Dip or Bat Poop

**So I was thinking about how everybody on Fanfiction are just completely normal people, doing completely normal things (most of the time). And then I thought about how all my reviewers and all my favorite fanfiction authors are just like me. So I decided to tell you just how normal I am.**

**I'm writing this on my laptop while sitting on the couch. I'm in polka-dotted PJ pants and a 'Team Gale' shirt (Hunger Games3). My older brother is next to me watching Road Trip (it's hysterical). I got my braces adjusted yesterday (can't wait to get them off) and they're absolutely killing me. I just printed out my school supplies list, and my mom is yelling at me to go do my laundry. My dog is currently chewing up my flip-flop but I'm too lazy to stop her (it's ugly anyways). And I'm sleeping over my bestest friend's house tonight (rainylainy1818, love ya girliee). See? Totally normal(:**

**Anyways, this chapter is so late, but whatever. Not the best, but I'm sleep deprived so you can't blame me. Actually you totally can, but I would prefer if you didn't. Blame the ridiculously large time difference between Australia and where I live. It's crazy; I feel like I'm nocturnal. Anyways, here's chapter 19! (or 20, it depends on how you look at it)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, or really anything else. Enjoy(:**

His face turned an even darker shade of red, and he started to, as the teenage population of 2004 might say, 'getting all up in my grill'.

"You demigods are all the same!" he shouted. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! You and all your friends are about to be killed and left to rot in the middle of some mountain, and all you can think about is your need of a _bathroom_?" he said the word with disgust, as if it was the name of some fat lady who lived down the street and spent her days looking through people's trash to find something for dinner. Like, "Oh, did you hear about _Gertrude_?"

I shrugged. "When you gotta go, you gotta go."

If Jill hadn't stepped in, I'm pretty sure I would have been dead long before I ever got the chance to marry a French swimsuit model, like I always dreamed of.

"Okay, wait just a minute here. How about we make a deal?"

He turned his attention away from me long enough to consider her offer. "A deal? What exactly would you be offering me, dearest?" He just went from crazy old dude screaming about a bathroom to creepy old guy trying to sell you drugs.

"Well," she looked around nervously. "You say you want the gods to notice you and all the other spirits, so you're going to get their attention by killing us. Correct?"

He stroked his beard in a totally clichéd way. "Yes…" he said uncertainly, as if he was trying to analyze her words and find out the hidden meaning.

"Well, if you murder four of their children, all you're going to get them to do is become very, very angry. And you chose the wrong gods and goddesses to anger. Athena, who once turned a girl into a spider just because she had beat her in a competition." She paused, letting him recap on the old story.

Then she continued. "Remember Odysseus? The guy who blinded Poseidon's son?" he nodded. "And do you remember what the good ole' sea god did to him? Well that was for blindinghis son. Could you imagine what he would do to you for _killing _his son? His _favorite _son?" He continued to stroke his beard and think about what she was saying.

"And then there's Hades, and we all know about his temper."

"Hey!" I protested, but then I realized my father did have quite the temper, so I let it go.

"Where are you going with this?" I heard Annabeth mumble, but Jill ignored her. Where w_as _she going with this whole thing?

"Alright, that's all very true. But what's the point of this? You think I won't kill you just because I'll get the goddess of _wisdom _mad at me? Ohhh, scary." I looked over to see both Jill and Annabeth's eyes narrowed.

"No, I'm perfectly aware that you would kill me." She said calmly.

"Not just you," he started, "all of you."

Jill smiled, like he just fell right into her trap.

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong. I don't think you would kill all of us; you're too smart for that." Did she seriously think that this was an appropriate time for sucking up to him?

"Continue." He commanded. She just smirked.

"You see, you kill all four of us and it's defiantly a murder. Percy doesn't die as easily as the rest of us, as you must know. But if just one of us shows up dead, it could so easily be an accident. Maybe a run-in with a _dracaena, _or even a little friendly swords-play that went wrong. The possibilities are endless."

He smiled. "What are you trying to convince me of doing?"

"You don't need all of us. Just one. The others will go back to camp and tell Chiron that one was killed by… a hellhound. We all have the marks to prove it. So they'll say that they couldn't save them. But Dolos, the extremely brave spirit came along and jumped in front of the poor camper, saving them a few precious moments of life." She said it all with such an overdramatic voice that it seemed like she was telling us last week's episode of her favorite soap opera, but Dolos was eating it right up. "The camper's injuries were too severe, and sadly they didn't survive. But all were grateful that they had that one last hour to say their goodbyes and relive their greatest moments in life. They'll say that Dolos is a great spirit, and that the gods should appreciate them more. Maybe invite them up to Olympus every now and then."

"Hm…" he considered what she just said. "Your plan is genius, my dear. But I have just one question: Which one of you is brave enough to sacrifice yourself for your friends?" He asked with a sinister smile on his face. I waited for Percy to raise his hand and save the day, like always. But he just put his arm around Annabeth and pulled her close. She was crying; mumbling something about sacrificing themselves in the end. They stepped back, while Jill and I stood alone. And that's when the prophecy came back to me,

_You shall be tested harder than ever before, _

She was obviously tested, since she had never been on a quest before.

_And you will battle some for the last great war, _

We fought those demigods on Kronos' side on the first day of our quest, which was a seriously sucky way to start it off.

_The one who called you shall be found, _

_With help from a deadly hound,_

If Mrs. O'Leary hadn't saved us, we would have never gotten far enough to find Dolos, who wasn't really expected as our 'caller'.

_In this quest, you will take three, instead of two, _

Obviously, she took Annabeth, Percy, and I.

_But be prepared, for death is before you, _

I have absolutely no idea.

_You cannot come back with a group of four,_

_So one shall be lost to the ocean floor, _

Still have no idea.

_This will be a most difficult and challenging quest, _

Obviously.

_And in the end you will sacrifice yourself to save the rest. _

"Ah, wonderful! We have a volunteer!" Dolos shouted delightfully. My head shot up and I turned to see Jill was standing a step in front of me, showing she was volunteering herself.

"It's my quest, so it's only right that I stand up and sacrifice myself. Just like the prophecy said." I heard a sob come from Annabeth's direction. My stomach dropped. Was she seriously just going to let him kill her? I ran the options through my head, considering what I should do. Grab her and shadow-travel outside the mountain? I searched the room for any possibly shadow that I could use, but there was none. The light was coming from all directions, and any shadows cast were way too small for two people to get through.

"Yes, yes – of course. Now, if you would just kindly walk to the other side of the room, so-"

"_Wait." _She interrupted. He wiped the fake smile off his face.

"What could you possibly want now, you ungrateful child! I just agreed to let your three friends walk off unharmed! How greedy can you be?"

"Don't think I haven't forgotten that you _are _the spirit of trickery and deception, Dolos. Let's make things clear. If I sacrifice myself, you'll let my friends go and never bother them again. Right?"

"Well, never is such a long time, and-"

"Dolos! Swear on the River Styx!"

"Fine, I swear on the River Styx that I'll let your idiotic friends go and _blah blah blah_."

She smirked, satisfied, and held her head up high. "Good. Now let me say goodbyes."

He sighed, "Fine!" Jill continued to stare at him before she made any move. "What?" he asked.

"Uh, hello! I'm saying goodbye before I _die!_ This is kinda personal. As in, _get out."_

He smiled. "Alright. I'll go, but don't think for a minute I'm just leaving you here alone. It's not like you would be able to escape anyway." With a flick of his wrist, a hidden door opened up from behind him and monsters flooded in. _Dracaena, Empousai_, and I think I even saw a Sphinx lurking in the back.

Dolos stood proudly in front of the little army. "As you can see, there were plenty of monsters left over from the last war who were more than happy to join my cause. And all of them have killed more demigods than your incompetent minds can count to, so I'm sure we won't have a problem with you trying to escape." I swallowed nervously. There was no way we could get away without being torn into a thousand pieces by a Sphinx, or maybe stabbed with a poisonous blade by a _dracaena. _"I'll be back in a few minutes, kiddies." Said Dolos, and he stepped out of the hidden door which shut behind him.

Once Jill turned back to face us, I couldn't help myself from shouting out "What the Hades is wrong with you?"

"What? Would you prefer all four of us die instead?"

"I would have sacrificed myself!"

"It's my quest! I've only known you for a month! I got you all into this!"

"We could have figured something out besides you volunteering to die!"

"Well I couldn't think of any other option! And I defiantly wasn't expecting that little army! Besides, that's what the prophecy says."

"The prophecy's not fulfilled yet. There are still missing parts! Which means this isn't the end, so this isn't the part where you're supposed to sacrifice yourself, you idiot!" The idiot part wasn't necessary, but I felt it fit in nicely.

She stuck up her chin stubbornly. "Well I'm taking matters into my own hands. I'll find some way out of this… hopefully."

"So, that's it? You're right – I have only known you for a month. And the Jill that I know wouldn't just give herself up like this. Athena's not just the goddess of wisdom; she's also the goddess of battle strategies. This is a battle; think of a strategy!" I sounded like I was somewhere between an inspirational speaker and a mental patient, but I couldn't stop spitting words out of my mouth.

Percy sighed and made a suggestion, "This rock can't be _that_ difficult to move, considering it just opened and closed. Maybe if we all put our full weight-"

"Wow. You all really _are_ stupid." a voice interrupted from the back of the room. I turned to face them. "Forget about us?" the voice turned out to be a nasty looking empousai with a sword strapped to her back. And there were more where she came from.

"You won't be going anywhere, sweetie." said another one, carrying a very lethal looking dagger in her right hand. And before we had time to say another word the back wall opened again and Dolos was suddenly in front of us.

"Well, that didn't sound like final goodbyes. Planning to escape?" he asked, as the whole lot of monsters suddenly adjusted themselves into fighting stances. I saw a snake-like tongue slip out of a _dracaena_'s mouth, creating a _hiss _as her eyes narrowed and she played with the hilt of her sword.

"Hm… I guess that means our deal's off, doesn't it?" he asked, but it was a rhetorical question. "Well, I guess I'll leave my little group of supporters here to finish you off. Shame, really. Your plan was quite clever." And with that, the spirit walked through the door without a glance back.

Wow. What a butthole-ish thing of him to do. (Remember, PG thoughts)

I thought back on the past couple years, trying to think of anything that might save us. Shadow-traveling was impossible. Summoning wouldn't help with anything. In fact, it would probably make things worse. Just as an empousai winked at me, I figured out exactly what to do.

"Percy! I know how to get us out of here. Or, at least how to save us." I said to my cousin, trying not to shout it and alert the enemies.

"Well that's great. Not to rush you or anything, but you may wanna take some action. Ya know, 'cause we're about to die and everything." He responded.

"Before I can do anything, you all need to step back unless you want me to kill you as well." I warned. They all took a large step back and put their backs against the wall; moving out of my way. Once I was sure I wouldn't accidently wipe them off the face of the Earth, I took out my sword and in one swift movement, stabbed it into the ground.

Some of the monsters looked confused, while recognition hit others and they stepped back nervously. Slowly at first, the ground began to split itself right in half. One large crack suddenly separated the earth, starting at my feet and finally ending at the opposite wall.

And then it began to open.

Flames erupted from beneath the surface as the monsters were sucked into the deep crack. One after the other they fell in; their screams echoing against the cave walls. Even the mighty Sphinx was lost to the fire after letting out some huge roars.

As the last _dracaena_ fell in, the earth closed up just as suddenly as it opened; leaving one long scar and nothing else to ever tell that the ground was once opened up to a fiery grave for two dozen monsters.

Unfortunately, the disruption had caused all the dust and dirt sitting on the ground to suddenly fly into the air and swarm around us; blurring our vision and making it harder for us to breathe. I heard someone explode into a fit of coughing, and I joined them.

"Ugh, why is there so much dust in here?" asked Percy.

"There's not that much. It's mostly guano." answered either Jill or Annabeth – I couldn't tell which.

"Guano?" I asked. It sounded like Spanish bean dip. Yum.

"Bat poop." Um, ew. That didn't sound so 'yum' anymore.

Soon everything settled down and I could see clearly again.

"That crack was pretty impressive." commented Annabeth from behind.

I grunted in response, and leaned against my sword. That had taken more energy out of me than I had expected, and I would need some ambrosia before I would be able to do almost anything. I pulled a square out of my front pocket and nibbled on some, careful not to eat too much. I wouldn't be able to escape if I had burned into a pile of ash, mixed into the bat poopies.

The sweet taste flooded my mouth and almost immediately I felt relief, and stood up normally after recapping my sword.

Energy and adrenaline surged through me, which was just what I had needed for my little escape plan.

You see, when I was younger, I had had the ability to move rocks. Annabeth called it a 'Geokinetic ability'. It seemed like something out of an X-Men movie, and it was pretty damn cool if you asked me. So using all of the strength I had left in me, I concentrated on the rock blocking the entrance and watched as it slowly began to move out of the way. I only opened it enough so we could all squeeze through, and ushered the others out ahead of me.

I had a feeling this wasn't over, and I didn't want to stick around to see round 2 of this fight. This time, the tunnel felt narrower and darker than it had before, and the pressure seemed to be sucking the air out of my lungs as I breathed.

It was kind of like shadow-traveling, only it felt like I did it wrong and was stuck in the middle of absolutely nowhere. And I would end up in Kansas, like 20 years into the future when all the farmers are replaced by robots that went crazy and killed all the cattle… the horror.

Claustrophobia began to kick in, and I ran as fast as I could to escape from the cursed rock walls and low ceiling. We ran and ran; our feet pounding against the dirt floor. My heels were in agony and I had blisters the size of golf balls, but I kept going. After what seemed like eternity (that doesn't even make sense), I could almost make out where this part of the tunnel ended and the giant rock separated us from the exit. Just a little bit farther.

The rock came closer and closer, and soon as we reached the boulder that was blocking our escape. I heard footsteps from far behind us, and I knew more monsters were heading our way; the others heard them too. Apparently, Dolos had a backup plan. I quickly tried to open the door again, but this time it was much harder. I was exhausted from all that running, and my adrenaline rush from before had worn off a while ago. Still, the rock slowly inched it's way open; letting us faintly see the light in the distance. But it still wasn't going fast enough.

"We're defiantly gonna die." mumbled Percy. You can always count on my cousin for a positive outlook on things.

"Should we stay and fight?" I asked.

"Oh hell no." responded Jill.

"_Hades_." Annnabeth corrected, but Jill just shrugged.

"Doesn't have the same ring to it."

Somebody was tapping their foot impatiently, and I rolled my eyes. "Ya know, maybe if I had a little _help _we would be able to get out sooner." There was a chorus of _oh!_'s as the three others came over and pushed and pulled in an attempt to get the entrance open.

It separated from the wall a bit faster now, but we were still running out of time. You could begin to see the outlines of monsters from just a little farther down the tunnel, and we all desperately used the last of our energy to get away.

"You know," Percy began, "This really isn't very heroic; running away instead of staying to fight."

"No, but look at it this way: we can be dead heroes, or we can get out of this tunnel. You choose."

That quieted the conversation for a while.

I willed myself to keep going. The muscles in my arms ached and my head felt like it was about to explode, but I defiantly wasn't going to be the first one to break away and give up.

The monsters were closer now. We could see them, which unfortunately meant that they could see us.

We were officially in their range.

An arrow shot past my ear and bounced off the rock, landing next to my feet. Crap-olla.

Who knew trying to move a rock would take so long, and take so much out of you? Defiantly not me. It felt like I was pushing a skyscraper, and expecting it to move out of my way. As if all the effort was useless; just a waste of my energy.

Just as I could make out the face of a pretty grotesque looking lady, the crack became just big enough for a skinny 14 year old girl to squeeze through. Jill slipped through and then continued pushing from the other side of the rock.

Arrows continued to fly past us; their accuracy becoming scarily closer. We even had to begin dodging them. Soon Annabeth squeezed through and it was just Percy and I.

A throwing spear hit him and he gasped in surprise, but it had bounced right off his invulnerable skin and landed a couple of feet behind us. Apparently it amused him, and he chuckled for a moment which annoyed me to no end.

When the monsters were just a short 200 feet away from us, I had had enough. I put one leg through the entrance, and then struggled to fit the rest of my body. I sucked in my stomach and pushed back against the wall, but I still couldn't make it through. It was possibly the most uncomfortable position I had ever been in, and my chest was being crushed between the rocks. Something shoved me and I ungracefully fell through and landed on the other side.

Jill helped me up while Annabeth tried yanking Percy out of the tunnel. He came flying out just a few seconds after me, and we all sprinted away, but the tunnel wasn't over yet.

After only minutes of running, we saw dracaenas slithering after us with hatred in their eyes. We picked up our pace and soon made our way out of the tunnel. The sunlight was so bright that we had to shield our eyes for a moment, and we couldn't make our way around. But we forced ourselves to keep going even though we were partially blind.

Needless to say, we tripped over quite a few rocks.

But soon we became adjusted to the new light and were able to run regularly again; dodging trees and going around obstacles. Soon we made our way back to where tourists were enjoying lunches, completely oblivious to what was going on around them.

I dared to look back, and saw 20 or so monsters escaping from the trees and heading straight for us. One pointed in our direction and started running faster.

For those of you who have never been chased by bloodthirsty monsters, it kind of feels like you're this super hot extremely famous celebrity, and all these crazed fangirls are running after you. Just like that, only the fangirls are equipped with weapons that could easily slice you open. It's quite the rush.

So anyways, we were headed towards the places with the most people. Trying to blend in was pointless, and trying to fight them would lead us to a premature death. So what was there to do?

Run.

**Yayy Chapter 19/20 is done! That took me like a whole day to write. 9 ½ pages and almost 4,000 words makes this the longest chapter! GASP! But it's true. And 462 reviews! Woo-hoo! Thanks to all the reviewers of the last chapter. There's nothing like coming home from a 26 hour plane ride and being greeted by a boat-load of reviews(:**

**Review if you want me to sign your ukulele! **


	21. Flirtatious Teenage Girls

**I love summer. Like, a lot. But I hate mosquitoes. I got 15 bites the other night, and they're itchy :P **

**I'm not even gonna make up an excuse of why I haven't updated in like 2 years. I was simply busy. With friends, and the beach, and getting ready for school (only a couple more weeks :P) and I just re-did my whole room so I've been majorly busy. But you can forgive me because I got you a present! It isss… this chapter! YAY!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, it's characters, plot, etc.**

Jill and Percy went right, running towards the parking lot; while Annabeth stayed straight and went to a small building that was most likely a park ranger station. I turned right and headed towards a large group of hikers, who were getting a safety talk from the leader.

"And folks, I can't stress this enough: If you see a bear – which, fingers crossed we won't – please resist the urge to run up to it and 'roar', scream, wave your arms, or anything else they taught you on those survival shows. I'm sure you've all heard the story of Joseph…" People shook their heads. "No? Alrighty then! Moving on," The hikers looked at each other, confused whether he was just trying to scare them or if he was being serious. Some rolled their eyes, while others chewed their nails nervously.

There were about 20 hikers there, and they ranged from an obese middle-aged man completely decked out in hiking gear, to a mildly-cute teenager snapping her bubblegum and trying to get reception on her cell phone.

A little boy began to scratch his mother's leg and _meow _loudly, so she pulled him aside and threatened him that if he continued pretending he was a cat Santa Claus wouldn't be coming that year.

The little boy stopped.

As I ran towards the group, I saw one man's head turn towards my direction. He seemed confused as he stared behind me, but then his eyes filled with fear. He grabbed a woman, who I assumed was his wife, and ran in the opposite direction screaming "Snakes!"

It was a domino effect. After people heard the first man scream, they all turned their attentions away from the leader and towards the area where there were apparently snakes (which was just the Mist covering up my little slithering friends). Once they saw the creatures for themselves, almost every hiker let out a shriek and sprinted away. People picked up their children and quickly made their way away from the "snakes" and towards the park ranger's station, which was where Annabeth was.

The leader of the group was making a desperate attempt to keep everybody calm, flailing his arms around and shouting "It's okay! Just make your way to the park ranger's station in an orderly fashion!", but he soon realized his attempts were useless and ended up running along-side them.

I was right behind the terrified group, wishing I had participated more in track at Camp Half-Blood; regretting the fact that if I had, I probably would be fit for this kind of cardiovascular endurance. I was surviving purely on my fight or flight reflexes, but they wouldn't last forever.

Soon I was panting more than I was breathing, and my legs burned with every step. I felt my dignity slip away as that chubby man with the hiking boots ran past me, leaving me in the dust. I had been trying to stay with the group, but when some of them were already reaching the station, I gave up. I turned around and headed for a particularly bushy tree, and just as it's shadow was close enough I slipped through it.

The familiar feeling of being consumed by the darkness took over again, but when I opened my eyes I was standing in a small building with a couple of desks and a whole lot of terrified tourists. Everybody was so distressed that they didn't even notice a teenage boy appear out of mid-air. Annabeth and some guy who I was guessing to be a park ranger stood up front, trying to get everyone to shut up so they could hear the story.

"People! One at a time, please!" the ranger shouted. He was tall and slim, wearing a uniform you wouldn't catch me dead in.

A man stepped forward. He blabbered on about the "humungous snakes" that were terrorizing the area, and if he was in charge he would exterminate of them immediately.

"Sir, I apologize for the inconvenience, but this is a wild area. We can't just capture all the animals and put them in cages, as you can understand." The man _humphed!_ and walked away. Others then started to complain and shout and cause all kinds of chaos for the poor park ranger.

I made my way over to Annabeth, who was talking to that teenage girl from before. She didn't seem fazed by the monstrous snakes terrifying the rest of the group.

"No, Clare. I'm sorry, but I can't convince your parents to take you home early." She told her.

"But this place is so _lame! _There is like, _no _reception out here!" she whined, and popped her bubblegum. Annabeth just shrugged. "Well, can you at least drive me to the beach?" asked the girl.

Annabeth looked at me, then back at the girl. "Drive you? There's no beaches for like, 200 miles."

'Clare' looked at her like she had 5 heads. "Uh, no it's not? It's right down the road. There were, like, 7 signs on the way here." Annabeth looked at me again, and then back at the girl. The teenager seemed to notice me for the first time, and winked.

"Hey, I'm-" she started, but Annabeth cut her off.

"He's 14."

She looked at me and I shrugged. Annoyance crossed over her face, and with a final "_Ugh_!" she walked away and back to whatever poor parents were responsible for her.

Annabeth turned to me and saw how red my face was. "Don't feel bad, Nico. She was mental anyway."

"No, that's not it. We were being chased by those-"

"Dracaena?"

"Exactly. They're faster than they look. They should be here by now; I don't know why they didn't come inside and kill all of us." I walked over to the nearest window and looked towards the direction of the dracaenas. They were lurking around by the trees, whispering to each other and hissing toward the park ranger station.

"What do you think about that whole beach thing?" I asked Annabeth.

She shrugged, "Don't worry about it." She began to play with a piece of her hair, "If there's a beach anywhere around here, Percy will find it. For now you may focus on getting past those dracaenas and back to the others." She pointed her thumb towards the window. "And to do that," she paused, "we need a distraction."

Ten minutes later a teenage girl walked out of the building, wearing a t-shirt and shorts that were slightly too big for her. She had brown hair and was a few inches shorter than the girl the dracaena were after, but they wouldn't realize…

Hopefully.

Inside Annabeth was wearing the other girl's clothes, which happened to be a hot pink tank top one size too small and Abercrombie denim shorts that barely covered her butt. I had a feeling Percy wouldn't complain about her new apparel.

So we had convinced the teenage girl that we had just met to go and be bait for the man-eating "snakes". It's funny what some people would do just for a ride to the beach, eh?

"So let's go over the plan again." started Annabeth, "She goes out there, reeking of demigod from my clothes. The dracaena see and/or smell her, and go after her. She screams and runs, and yadda yadda yadda. They realize she's just a stupid human, and leave her alone; but by then you and I are already long gone. Good?"

"I just have one question." I started. She nodded her head, telling me to go on. "What if by the time they realize she's human, it's too late? Or what if they _don't _leave her alone?" I asked.

"Well…" she considered the options, "Then two parents won't have to worry about raising their obnoxious teenage daughter." She gave one nod of her head, satisfied of her answer.

This was morally wrong, and we were jeopardizing an innocent bystander's life, and most people would look at us like we had no souls – but I really didn't care so I just shrugged and said "Okay."

We waited a minute, and then heard a high pitched screech, which was our signal to get our booties out of there. People all turned their attention toward the scream, and hurried to the window to see what was happening. We ran outside along with a crowd of curious hikers. A man pushed to the front of the crowd screaming "CLARE! Hit it on the nose!"

A woman then shouted "No, that's for sharks! You're supposed to stomp on it's tail!" Clare just continued to run around and scream.

Another man added in, "That won't help! You have to stand up as tall as you can and wave your arms around! Make yourself look big!"

"That's bears, you idiot! She has to hiss at them!" said another.

People piped in all sorts of lame advice, none of which the girl took. She continued screeching and running around, which was probably the best thing she could have done.

With all the chaos, it was easy for me and Annabeth to sneak out and run away from all the commotion and to the other direction where Percy and Jill had taken off to. The girl's screams became quieter and quieter, but soon stopped at once. I was hoping that meant they had realized she was no demigod and left her alone, but I wasn't completely sure.

Throughout my life, many things have helped me. Other demigods, extremely dangerous weapons, super amazing powers – but I think the one thing that has helped me the most is completely and totally normal: adrenaline rushes.

Like, at that moment, for example. I wouldn't be able to sprint (and keep up with Annabeth) for 10 minutes if my body hadn't granted me with an oh-so-powerful adrenaline rush. Considering the circumstances, I was probably on a more intense adrenaline rush than normal. Kind of like in Twilight when Edward like crushes that car and then Bella's all like "Wow, that was epic. How'd you do it?" and Edward was like "Oh, it was an adrenaline rush. Pretty common." But he was really lying because he just had super strength or something like that (when you're stupid enough to prank the Aphrodite cabin with the Stoll brothers, they think of some pretty unique punishments).

But after it felt like we had run around the whole mountain twice, we finally spotted a blast of water from the distance.

"Like I said before," Annabeth started, "If there's a beach anywhere around here, Percy will find it."

**Anddd…. That's chapter 20/21 for ya! Reviewww!**


	22. Our Slithering Friends

**Don't you just hate it when you're at the hair salon and you ask the lady for auburn highlights and yet she gives you blonde? Don't you just hate it when your mom says "It looks great, honey!" but in reality you look like a bad impersonation of Hannah Montana? 'Cause I know I do.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own nothin'!**

The beach actually turned out to be much closer than we had thought. Just a couple more minutes of agonizing running, and the Pacific was clearly in view – along with Percy looking freakishly like this guy I saw on a stained glass window walking on the water (besides the beard and long robes).

He stood farther out in the water, controlling the waves to hit the beach and carry the monsters out to sea.

Jill stood at the shore, fighting monsters one at a time and eventually pushing them into the water. They struggled to escape from the sea, but the rough currents Percy was creating pulled them right back in; playing around with them as if they were dolls.

Empousa after empousa rushed against Jill, and all she had to do was glance at Percy and before you could say "Eat my pants!" a wave had crashed against the shore and carried away the whole lot of them.

They were ruthlessly and effortlessly killing a whole army of monsters; sweeping them up into the ocean and drowning them without an ounce of pity.

Basically, they were having an awesome time.

Annabeth and I made our way down to the shore; taking advantage of the situation to catch our breath. We saw one particularly ugly monster push Jill backwards into the sand, but within seconds the creature was nothing more than a pile of dust spread over the sand, thanks to Jill's handy-dandy sword. She stood up and began brushing the wet sand off of her clothes and legs, but it was useless. It was caked in the knots of her hair and stuck in the creases of her shirt.

"Jill!" shouted Annabeth from next to us. Her sister turned her head towards us and waved with a smile. Just a few more monsters remained, thanks to Percy, and I guess they weren't important enough to take anymore of her attention since she ignored them and walked towards us.

As you could imagine, monsters don't like to be ignored by teenage demigods, so the few ones left let out a very un-ladylike battle cry and ran after her. This didn't go very well with Percy, and seconds later the remains of Dolos' mighty army were carried away from the waves screaming and going on about how they'll get us and _yadda yadda yadda._

"Hey." She greeted us. Looking at her sister, she said "I see you've made a wardrobe change?"

"Forget about it. You or Percy get hurt?" asked Annabeth.

Jill shook her head. "Nope. Just a couple of scratches. What about you guys?" She started using her fingers to comb through her hair.

"I'm pretty sure I lost a lung on the way here, but besides that I'm fine." I told them. Jill rolled her eyes (for the thousandth time), while Annabeth whacked me on the back of the head.

"We're both fine." said Annabeth. "And since we're basically done here, we better get to the car and get away from this place as soon as possible. Those dracaena probably figured out that that girl was just an obnoxious human a while ago and have come after us."

Her younger sister looked confused. "What girl?" she asked.

"Annabeth and I put an innocent girl – with a great taste in guys, by the way – in mortal danger. But she should be fine." Jill still looked confused, but she shook her head and focused on the current situation.

"Okay, well we need to get Percy before the-" she paused, "well, _Hades._"

"What?" I asked, but she just pointed behind us.

I didn't understand this. Why can't people just _tell _you what's going on? Why do they have to be all overdramatic and point to it? That's why I prefer the underworld. Nobody's a drama queen down there. (Well, actually the majority of the spirits are, but with them I can just demand that they leave me alone and everything's much easier.)

But, since she was obviously much more difficult than the dead, I was forced to turn around and look at where there was apparently something super exciting that I just _had_ to see.

And in the end, it wasn't even that super exciting at all. About 10 or so dracaena were slithering through the sand, making their way towards us.

None of them had blood covering their faces and/or hands, so I was guessing they left our little friend alone (well, hopefully).

"Well," started Annabeth, "do we fight or do we leave?" Just as she finished, a series of arrows came flying towards us and landed at our feet; embedding themselves into the sand.

"What about Percy?" asked Jill. We looked over to the water, and saw him swimming around – probably trying to re-energize himself. Annabeth put up her hands and waved them around, trying to get his attention. Once he looked over, she put up one hand with three fingers, which was a symbol they taught us at camp meaning "Are you okay?"

He gave her a thumbs up, and then looked towards the dracaena, then back to us. With a wave of his hand, we were told to leave.

As we ran off, we could faintly hear Percy attracting the attention of the monsters. "Hey, reptiles! Over here!" he yelled. The tide came up abnormally high (thanks to Percy's doing) and just reached the creatures. Some of them recoiled.

"What," he started, "You scared of a little water?" Another tide came in, this time a little higher. Some dracaena hissed and came after him, while others continued following us.

Fortunately, the parking area was pretty close to the beach; and by the time we made it there and spotted our car the dracaena were still quite a bit behind us.

We then realized that Percy was the one with the key.

Annabeth cursed, and the next thing you knew she had kicked the window in and was climbing through to get to the driver's seat. Once she was seated, she unlocked the other doors and said "Hop in, kiddies."

Unfortunately, Jill climbed in next to her sister and I was forced to take the back seat. There was something that resembled a moldy orange on the floor in front of me, so I kicked it out of the way and gagged a bit when I saw all the bugs that had crawled under there and died.

Annabeth started the car, and pulled out of the parking lot and into the road.

"Aren't we waiting for Percy?" I asked. She shook her head.

"He'll be fine. Even if he wasn't invulnerable, he's still almost untouchable when he's in the water. Plus, it's in the prophecy."

"Huh?" I asked. I don't remember leaving Percy alone to kill a couple of snake-women being in the prophecy.

"_You cannot come back with a group of four_

_So one shall be lost to the ocean floor." _Annabeth recited.

"But still, don't you think we should wait for him? I mean, 'lost to the ocean floor'. That doesn't sound too good."

"If we drive him back, it means he won't be lost to the ocean. Which means that line won't be fulfilled yet, which means one of us will be the one in that line. Wouldn't you prefer the guy who can't drown to be lost to the ocean floor, rather than us who can only hold our breath for two minutes or so?" Even though Annabeth sounded very confident, Jill still seemed uncertain.

Annabeth sighed. "Jill, I know you don't understand, but I've known Percy since I was 12, and he's been my best friend ever since. This is the boy who single-handedly saved Olympus. I think he can handle a couple of-"

"Woah, woah, woah." I interrupted. "He defiantly did _not_ 'single-handedly save Olympus'. I helped out! As a matter of fact, so did-"

"Nico, _shut up_! I'm trying to make a point here!" She turned around to glare at me, which wasn't the smartest thing to do considering she was driving.

She looked like she was about to go on again about how wonderful Percy was, but Jill stopped her. "It's okay, I get it. I guess he'll be alright." She paused, "I just have one question: who's this girl that you two were talking about earlier?"

"Ah, Clare." I said.

"Clare?" she asked.

"Yes, Clare." began Annabeth. "She's Nico's girlfriend."

Jill looked confused. "Seriously?"

"Yep. She was attracted to my devilish good looks and irresistible charm." I told her. It was totally true. She was so blinded by my handsomeness that she didn't even notice the fact that I was a good two years younger than her.

"No, seriously. Who was she?" she asked again.

"Just another girl who fell under the spell of Nico di Angelo."

"But that doesn't-"

"Jill, shut up."

…

So we drove. And we drove, and we drove.

At one point, Mrs. O'Leary had tagged along with us, but I think she got bored and shadow-traveled to some place more exciting than the middle of the Great Plains (there was really nothing great about them).

When we were somewhere in Nebraska, I asked Annabeth why there was a beach in the middle of Oregon.

"Like I said before, the place we were looking for magically popped up right in front of us. Key word: _magically._" she said. "When things like that happen, especially for demigods, there's a 99% chance that it's a trap. Just look at what happened today. You see, as you get older and learn more about-"

That's about the time I fell asleep.

**Review if you love me!**


	23. Being 14 is Tough

**Sigh.**

**This is it.**

**The last chapter.**

**Wow. I've been writing this since February 16****th****. That's pretty insane. Well, I must thank all my amazing reviewers and supporters! You've all kept me motivated and inspired to keep on writing! You're all amazing, and I love you to death! Give yourself a pat on the back(:**

**Now, some people have asked me through reviews or PM's whether or not I will be writing a sequel. And honestly, I'm not sure. I may. I may not. I want your opinions! If I wrote one, would you read it? Why dontcha tell me in a review? Well, that sounds swell!**

**Wow. This is pretty depressing. Last chapter. Yeah. And I'm sure only about 5% of you are actually reading this, so I'm just gonna put the disclaimer up now(: **

**Disclaimer: For the 22****nd**** time, I don't own PJO and any of it's characters.**

It took about 6 days to get from wherever the Hades we were, to Long Island, New York.

6. Freakin. Days.

Do you know how long that is in teenage time? Like, 2 months.

I was considering just shadow-traveling out of there and leaving the girls behind, but I knew Chiron would be very "disappointed in my actions and the decisions I chose to make", so I stuck it out and spent most of the time lying across the backseat and wondering if the stain on the car ceiling was ketchup from eating some fries in the car or maybe a messy murder that he forgot to clean up.

At some gas station in Illinois, Annabeth contacted Percy via Iris message. While we were on the road all day and sleeping in cheap motels at night, he had already been back at camp for over a day. Apparently, he had managed to kill the remaining monsters, but it had drained all his energy. Instead of making it back to land, he just decided to take a nap in the wondrous Pacific. A couple hours later, he woke up on the beach somewhere in New Jersey and got a cab back to camp. Seems like saying a quick prayer to his dad can really make things easy on his part.

How wonderful for him.

So after almost a full week of "Are we there yet?"'s, and "Pull over, I gotta pee!"'s, we finally made it back to Camp Half-Blood. And surprisingly, none of us lost a significant amount of blood. Huzzah!

But like I was saying before, it took us 6 whole days to get back. I missed my own bed in the Hades cabin, and I missed sleeping till noon, and I missed… well, that was basically it. I hated almost everything (and everyone) at camp. I kind of considered this quest as a short break from my lame life. But I was glad to be going back.

Especially when we arrived just in time to see a few Apollo girls finishing their volleyball game.

Beach volleyball.

Like, bikini beach volleyball.

I feel like it was a small welcome back present from the gods.

Travis and Connor Stoll were the first to see us. They were also watching the game with much… er… _interest_. When they tore their gaze away from the girls long enough to glance in our direction, they suddenly jumped up, waved their arms around, and started running towards us.

"They're back!" Connor shouted. The more attention they attracted, the more campers rushed towards us. Soon we were surrounded by a mob of excited demigods. Some had just come from archery, and were waving their bows in the air. Katie Gardner and a few of her siblings wiped their gloves on their shorts, leaving a trail of dirt. The Athena cabin pushed their way to the front of the crowd and cheered on their sisters.

I didn't know about the other two, but all the attention was making me feel awkward. I was usually the one that hid in the shadows; not the one getting all of the attention. Jill, on the other hand, looked like she was basking in the glory. I couldn't blame her; it was her first quest and it had been successful, with no campers injured or lost. Hurray for Jill.

Annabeth stepped to the side to let her sister get the attention. After all, Annabeth had been on many quests before this one. Time to give her younger sister a chance in the spotlight. I turned away, hoping to slip past the crowd and make my way to my cabin, where I could rest in peace. (Get it? Rest in peace? Like, since I'm the son of Hades? R.I.P? Ha! I'm too much). But as I was just getting past some random guy, someone grabbed my arm.

"Ohmigosh! Nico! How was the quest? Was it super dangerous? Did you almost die!" A girl stood next to me, and judging by her looks, she was a daughter of the oh-so-popular Aphrodite. Blonde hair fell to her shoulders, complimented by angles and highlights and all that jazz. Her big brown eyes stared at me with interest.

"Uh, I'm sure Percy already told you all about it." I told her, trying to get out again. But for a daughter of Aphrodite, she had a surprisingly strong grip.

"No!" she shook her head. "He wouldn't tell us anything! He said you three would. Oh my gods, I bet you guys killed, like, a _thousand _monsters!" she exclaimed. Her unnaturally pink lips broke into a grin, and her eyes widened with excitement. From the corner of my eye, I saw Jill glance over at me and the extremely attractive girl clutching my arm, and I shrugged innocently.

I looked down at her manicured nails digging into my skin. "Uh, yeah. We did. Some dracaena, and empousa, and even a Sphinx." I told her, still trying to escape from her grasp.

She gasped, and used one hand to cover her mouth dramatically. Leaving one hand holding my wrist, she put the other on my shoulder. "Awww! Wow, that's _so _heroic of you!" She looked me in the eyes, and said extremely seriously, "Tell me _all _about it."

By now, 4 or 5 of her sisters (who were also extremely attractive) had gathered around too, to hear the oh-so-fascinating story of disgusting motels, perverted old men, hellhounds, Hades, and traps.

I could get used to this newfound attention…

…

That night we all met in the Big House to discuss the outcome of the quest.

We were all sitting in those uncomfortable plastic chairs that were arranged in a circle around the room. Just like the night the prophecy was announced, there were two representatives from each cabin here. From Hermes, it was obviously Travis and Connor Stoll. Apollo had two boys that I didn't care enough about to remember their names. The Demeter cabin had sent Katie Gardner and one of her sisters. Annabeth and Jill were sitting across the room talking to two daughters of Persephone. The list went on and on; Aphrodite, Ares, Hecate, etc. A son of Hephaestus was looking anxious to find out whether or not his dad in the middle of some crazy evil plan, and his older brother that was with him tried calming him down. I guess Percy really didn't say anything.

Before long we heard the familiar _clomp_ing of Chiron's hooves hitting the wood floor, and he made his way into the room. Most campers greeted him as he walked up front and stood facing the little circle of plastic chairs.

"Good evening, campers." He said with a small bow of his head. Some kids mumbled a quick "hello" or "good evening", but most remained quiet. "As you all know, all four members of the most recent quest have come back alive and successful. With us tonight, we have the four campers who will tell us about what happened." He cleared his throat, and then called loudly, "Will the leader of this quest please step forward?" Jill rose, and somebody cheered mockingly. She (along with the majority of the room) sent a glare towards him, and made her way next to Chiron.

Standing next to him, she looked ridiculously short, but only because he's tremendously tall. But still, she stood proud and confidently as she repeated the prophecy she was given weeks ago.

"The prophecy was:

_You shall be tested harder than ever before, _

_And you will battle some from the last great war, _

_The one who called you shall be found, _

_With help from a deadly hound,_

_In this quest, you will take three, instead of two, _

_But be prepared, for tricks are before you, _

_You cannot come back with a group of four,_

_So one shall be lost to the ocean floor, _

_This will be a most difficult and challenging quest, _

_And in the end you will sacrifice yourself to save the rest."_

When she finished, Chiron nodded and looked back at Jill. "Now," he started, "Can you tell us what each line meant?" Jill nodded, but she looked uncertain.

"Well, the first line was just saying the quest would be hard. The second line told us we would battle some from the last great war, which was the war against Kronos. On our first day, we met a group of demigods that had been fighting against the gods. Needless to say, we didn't exactly hit it off." A few campers chuckled.

She continued telling the extremely long and strange story of the last 2 weeks of our lives. As she went on, she received a few _gasp!'_s, a couple of laughs, one or two "Wait, _what?_"'s, and some cheers. She told them about the disgusting motel, shadow-traveling across the country, being chased by a hellhound, Dolos tricking us (the Hephaestus campers were relieved), the mini army, and leaving Percy on the beach.

When she finished, Chiron dismissed her back to her seat. Campers cheered, and this time it wasn't sarcastically. The kid next to me pat me on the back, and one of the Aphrodite girls winked at me.

Chiron announced that he would report to Olympus what Dolos had done immediately, and he trotted off, leaving a room full of campers behind. At that point, most just got up and left to go back to their cabins. Curfew was in 10 minutes, and nobody wanted to be the harpies' next meal.

I walked back to my cabin, enjoying the dark and the quiet, when I heard someone walking behind me. I ignored them for a bit, assuming they were on their way to their cabin, too. But when I was a couple feet away from the door to the Hades cabin, I turned around to face them (silently hoping it was an Aphrodite girl). I was greeted by a very surprised Jill who bumped into me when I stopped suddenly.

"Oh, uh, hi." She said.

"Any reason why you've been stalking me for the past 5 minutes?" I asked her with a grin. I wasn't positive since it was so dark out, but I'm pretty sure she turned bright red.

"What, no! I was just walking to my cabin!" she defended herself. Heh, messing with Jill has proved to be fun.

"Hate to burst you bubble, but the Athena cabin is that way." I pointed my finger to the right.

"Yeah, I know. But I just wanted to say thank you." At this, I was surprised.

"What? Why?" I asked, probably sounding like the complete moron I was.

Even in the dark I could see her roll her eyes. "_Because_, you actually went on this stupid quest with me, even though I only knew you for a day. And you totally saved our butts back there in the cave. You have some pretty cool powers there, Nico." Even though it was really lame of me, I smiled a bit at the compliment.

"Uh, thanks." I mumbled, and reached for my doorknob.

"I also wanted to thank you for, uh, what you said." When I realized what she was talking about, _I _was the one blushing. "It was really sweet of you." And before I could figure out what was happening, she had reached up and kissed me on the cheek. At that point I had gone from mild blushing to a red tomato.

And then she was gone; walking off to the Athena cabin where her siblings were waiting for her.

That was the end of my newfound popularity.

Over the next few days, I got a couple "good job"s, and a few "congratulations!", but after a week I was once again the outcast of Camp Half-Blood. The rest of the summer flew by, and the next thing I knew people were hugging their siblings and friends goodbye; lugging their bags up the hill and getting into the (new) camp van that would take them to the city.

Percy, Annabeth, and Jill came by briefly to say goodbye; but after the vans left I was alone…

Again.

A few campers in each cabin stayed, of course. Strange at it is, I preferred it when the camp was full and kids were constantly running around and causing all sorts of havoc. When it was like that, everybody had their closest friends and siblings to talk to. But when there's only a few of us, it gets really, _really _awkward.

Weeks passed, and basically nothing happened. Fall came by, and the trees dropped their leaves. Some of the younger campers would run around and jump into the piles of them, while an older sibling laughed and picked the leaves out of their hair. It just got colder and colder, until it reached the point where I only left my cabin to eat.

The night before my fifteenth birthday, I thought back on my summer. I had battled monsters, gotten chased by a hellhound, met a possible child molester, lived with two know-it-all daughters of Athena, gotten girl advice from the Lord of the Dead, traveled across the country (twice), and got my first kiss (even if it _was_ just on the cheek).

So just, before I went to sleep, I thought to myself,

Wow.

Being 14 is Tough.

**Gah! Review! Aw this is so sad. Last author's note of Being 14 is Tough. **

**For any of you who didn't catch it earlier, sequel or no sequel? Leave a review telling me what you want! If I do decide to write one, I'll make an author's note on this story telling you what it's called and where to find it(: **

**Well, I love you guys! Thanks so much for reading my story and reviewing!**


	24. Being 15 is Tougher

Alrighty everyone.

Since I received an overwhelming response of **71** reviews (heh, bragging rights) saying they would read a sequel,

I JUST HAD TO WRITE ONE!

So, if you would be kind enough to check it out, you can find it on my profile!

I love all of you guys so much, and can't believe so many people read my story, and wanted more! It was really amazing to read all of your reviews and it always makes my day.

You guys are the best!

So, thanks to all of you who gave me ideas for the sequel's title. You all guessed what I was going for, haha. I was stuck between two of them, but the story shall be named…

Being 15 is Tougher!

I just liked the way it sounded, haha.

For the thousandth time, I love you all and hope you like the sequel as much as you seemed to like this one!(:

From the girl who is depressed to be writing the absolute last review of her first story successful story (haha),

BrightBlueConverse

P.S. I think my feet are symbolically telling me it's time to let go of this. As of last week, my bright blue converse no longer fit me, and I can't find new ones :'(


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